NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WDRB) – For most of a decade, Kentucky came to the SEC Tournament looking to put icing on the cake. A cherry on top. John Calipari ruled this tournament, going 22-3 from 2010 to ’18, winning the tournament six times. Even with its meaningless Sunday championship game, this was the Wildcats’ playground.
Times have changed. This season, Calipari’s talented but inconsistent Kentucky team came to Nashville the No. 2 seed in the SEC and projected a No. 3 seed and rising in the NCAA Tournament. Finally having put it all together with five straight wins, including an emphatic win at SEC champion Tennessee, Kentucky had moved back into the Top 10 and looked to just need some tournament fine tuning this weekend in Nashville.
Instead, Calipari is going to have to get back under the hood. Texas A&M trailed for just a moment in putting down Kentucky 97-87 in the SEC quarterfinals Friday night, sending home a throng of blue-clad supporters wondering if this Kentucky team will ever reach the promise of its potential.
"We've got some stuff to figure out," Calipari said.
Kentucky has now lost five of its past six SEC Tournament games.
"This tournament was about seed," Calipari said. "We had every chance with all that's going on around the country, but we had to go out and play well today. . . . I feel bad for the fans. You want to win for them. They put everything into being here. . . . But sometimes your teams don't play well. We didn't do it today. But don't take away from A&M, because they played well."
This Kentucky team has a chance to be a favorite of Calipari’s tenure. But it got bullied on Friday.
Texas A&M outhustled Kentucky, outscoring the Wildcats 18-4 off turnovers and 26-9 on second-chance points. The Aggies jumped to a 7-2 lead, prompting a Calipari timeout. Kentucky steadied itself, even went up by a point with just over 13 mintues to play. But it couldn’t stop A&M’s Wade Taylor IV (32 points, six three-pointers) or Tyrece Radford (23 points).
Kentucky was led by Rob Dillingham, whose five three-pointers helped him to 27 points. Red Sheppard added 14 and Antonio Reeves 13. But Kentucky’s frontcourt was woefully unproductive. Justin Edwards had just two points, as did Ugonna Onyneso. Aaron Bradshaw did not score, and Tre Mitchell had seven points and nine rebounds before fouling out.
Now Kentucky returns to Lexington to see how much damage it did to its NCAA Tournament resume, and still looking for the kind of spark that can lift it from celebrated to special, with time running out.
"it's very simple," Mitchell said. "We're not done yet."
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