It’s been right at 3 days since we’ve heard from the Kentucky men’s basketball team since their Friday 8-point loss to the SEC’s top overall seed of Florida. We also hit the 24-hour mark past Selection Sunday as well, still with no word from the program about any of it.
Well, where have they been? Fast forward to Monday night and due to regular programming for the ‘Mark Pope Coaches Show’ with Tom Leach the men’s basketball head coach was available for the first time to answer questions about what’s unfolded this weekend.
Kentucky was assigned a 7-seed for their NCAA Tournament positioning starting this weekend where they will take on the 10-seeded Santa Clara Broncos in St. Louis, Missouri. They’ll head west at the end of the work week to prep for their 11:15 AM CT local tipoff time come Friday, March 20th, in the Round of 64. For the first time in a really long time, as long as I can remember and for the first time since I’ve been covering the team dating back to 2017, the men’s basketball team didn’t hold a public viewing of the Selection Sunday show.
The media wasn’t given a heads up as to why, either. All of this is totally fine, I am not complaining, I am just stating that it was really odd to see happen. This is an event every year where the head coach is made available immediately after to discuss the team’s draw and a lot of story lines can come from it. Immediate thoughts, discussions on potential matchups in later rounds, the team’s thoughts as they gear up for the Big Dance, but none of that took place this year.
So why didn’t they you might ask? The team all gathered at Mark Pope’s house to watch it together in a quiet, more focused environment, with no outside distractions.
“It’s actually the only moment we’ve had the entire season where it has just been us, and it just gave us an evening, a short evening, to kind of have some very personal, private conversations and to take in the moment,” said Pope. He continued with, “We actually had a great night. It was a very meaningful night for our guys. I think it set the tone for us to give ourselves the best possible chance to make a magical run here.”
Totally fine. I understand their reasoning behind this as well. I do think with this all-in type of fanbase they would’ve still enjoyed the team’s thoughts just moments after finding out who their first round matchup would be, but on the other hand this program is much better than celebrating a 7-seed selection anyways, so maybe it was better off not having one. This is the first time in program history the Wildcats will be a 7-seed so maybe new numbers stir up new traditions. I don’t know.
With that being said, Mark Pope is set on the main objective of the season and that’s making noise in March and the team will look to go out with a bang with what’s left in this season. Their path won’t be the easiest — that’s what happens when you don’t fully take care of business during the regular season — but their draw could have definitely been much worse if we’re being honest. I’m just glad we avoided the East Region.
Here is the full show from tonight in case you missed it live.
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