CRAWFORD | In NCAA opener, memory of last year's first-round flop motivates Kentucky | Sports

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WDRB) – It is the elephant, um, Peacock in the room. The University of Kentucky returns to NCAA Tournament play against Providence tonight at 7:10 p.m. But for some of the Wildcats, the bigger opponent is the shadow of what happened in the tournament a year ago.

The memory of St. Peters’ stunning first-round upset of Kentucky last season is still with Wildcats’ big man Oscar Tsheibwe. But the important thing, he said, is not living through that memory again. The important thing is learning from it.

“Last year was painful,” Tshiebwe said. “But what happened last year is none of our business anymore. We learned from that and now we try to move on. That is just going to help us to play hard because we’ve worked so hard this year for this moment so we're going to come in with a different mindset.”

A year ago, a great many people (including me) thought Kentucky was set up for a nice run in the tournament. The Wildcats had fantastic chemistry, seemed to have fun playing together, and had Tshiebwe, who was sweeping national player of the year awards.

You’d think all of us would know by now that in a single-elimination tournament, the regular rules of chemistry (and physics and math) do not always apply.

“One game,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “None of us know what's going to happen. None of us. We could all -- the 1 (seed) has been beaten by a 16. And you may not know this, a 2 has been beaten by a 15. A few times. A couple of Hall of Famers too, by the way. That's happened. So you don't know – 12 vs. 5, 6 vs. 11 -- I mean, I'm looking at the 11 saying, why aren't they the 6? And, you know, I mean, no one knows.”

Tshiebwe knows this. What happened a year ago is a motivator.

“This time last year we were headed back home,” he said. “And I’m not ready to go back home. I'm going to play like every game is the final game for me, and if it’s your final game you’re going to play to win, you’re not going to play to lose.”

But when you’re at Kentucky, there’s an ambient pressure. The program lost in the first round last season. That was a tremor. If it were to happen again, it would be a basketball catastrophe, to keep perspective, or an actual catastrophe, in the worlds of many rabid fans in the Commonwealth.

Calipari has a constant challenge to keep that kind of negative thinking away from his players. That’s been especially difficult this season, with a team that began the year ranked No. 4 in the nation and finished it unranked, with its very NCAA Tournament worthiness questioned along the way.

“My job is to shield them from all that stuff and make sure this is an experience that you go through that you're fortunate to be in this and really enjoy the experience,” he said. “Don't listen to all the outside voices and -- it doesn't matter. You play the games. . . . The problem is some of them have phones, and they'll read some of the stuff, and you try to tell them, it makes no difference what anybody says. You still play the games.”

Calipari recently tried to underscore that with his players by showing them an unusual edit of past successful teams at Kentucky.

“A moment that kind of stood out to me before practice he kind of just showed not like big impactful clips, but just moments of past teams,” CJ Fredrick said. “They were just having so much fun and smiling and having joy. That was a moment that stood out to me. It was just kind of telling us, this is supposed to be a fun time. Smile, have fun, and do what you guys love to do.”

This season itself has presented Calipari with a good many teachable moments. More than one player on Thursday said that coming through some of that adversity should have the team better able to handle the pressure of an NCAA Tournament.

“We know we can lose to anyone,” Tshiebwe said. “But we can definitely beat anyone. The key is being ready to play. Knowing those things, we are confident.”

Health issues have dogged Kentucky all season. Cason Wallace has nursed injuries. Sahvir Wheeler has missed more than a month, though he could be available for the tournament. Tshiebwe started slow because of knee surgery.

“We'll see where we are,” Calipari said. “But this -- I'm liking the group. I wish we were fully healthy, but we'll have to see what happens Friday, who can play. . . . I’m excited to be here. My team is excited to be here. Last night's dinner was more chatter at the table for the players than I've heard in a long time. I don't know if that means they're a little nervous, but there were no headphones, and they were doing stuff together, which made me feel really good. I slept better last night because of that.”