NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Alex Poythress has had a front-row seat for one of the greatest rides in college basketball history.Sitting on the bench and traveling with the team as Kentucky has rolled unbeaten through the 2014-15 season, Poythress has been there every step of the way. It’s a spot most UK fans would love to be in.For Poythress – whose season was cut short in early December by a torn ACL – it hasn’t been easy. Every day is a reminder that he’s supposed to be on the floor.”Oh, I miss it a lot,” Poythress said after watching UK dispatch Florida in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals on Friday, 64-49. “I’d give the world to still be playing.”But given his current situation – rehabbing from reconstructive surgery – he’s thankful the top-ranked Wildcats still count him as a teammate.”I don’t feel like I’ve been left behind,” Poythress said. “I’m still a part of the team, still come to all the meetings, activities, all the stuff to do. Whenever I’m not doing my rehab, I’m around the team still.”The junior forward, unable to play or practice, has thrown himself into his rehab. When he’s not in class or with his teammates, Poythress can probably be found doing some kind of work to facilitate the healing process, as much as four hours a day.”Every day I’m doing something about my knee,” said Poythress, who called rehab harder than basketball. “There’s no days off. I’m just trying to stretch my knee as much as I can.”To break up scar tissue left from surgery, Poythress has to continually bend and stretch his knee. Talking about the pain, he said he “wouldn’t wish it on anybody.””It makes you want to cry,” Poythress said. “But you gotta get through it.”And with the help of his teammates and family, he is.”It feels good because I was at points after the surgery the first couple days when I couldn’t get out of bed by myself,” Poythress said. “I couldn’t move my leg. I had to have somebody help me out of my bed, move my leg and stuff like that. So moving around well now, it’s real good for me.”Poythress moves better each day and no longer needs the crutches he used when he made his first public appearance post-injury at UK’s win over North Carolina. He received a standing ovation upon taking the court for that game and his teammates wore warmup shirts honoring him. That support hasn’t died down.”It’s just a great feeling that my teammates and the fans, they all care about me still,” Poythress said.The fans, as much as they care about him, are eager to find out what Poythress might do following the season. Set to graduate in May, he has a decision ahead of him about whether to return to Lexington or pursue a professional career.”I haven’t even thought about that yet,” Poythress said. “Like I said earlier, I’m just focused on this season we got so far.”Playing or not, he has plenty to focus on.Cats closing outThirty-two games into the best unbeaten start in school history, the Cats have shown an uncanny ability to find another gear in crunch time.When they’re down late – as they were against Georgia and LSU – they clamp down on defense and find ways to win. When they’re locked in a close game – as they have been twice in the last seven days against Florida – they turn in back-breaking runs.”They have a will to win,” Calipari said.That will to win manifested itself against the Gators with a 14-2 run that turned a slim five-point lead with less than eight minutes left into a comfortable 64-49 victory. Similarly, UK outscored Florida 25-11 over the final 10:28 of a win over the Gators in the regular-season finale.”We got a lot of guys that aren’t afraid to make the play,” Calipari said. “To be those kind of players, you cannot be afraid to make the game-winning play. None of those kids are. They will take it. If they miss it, they will live with the result, which is late in the game where we’ll make a play or two or come up with a defensive stop, we’ll do some good stuff.”‘We need this tournament’One of the few things Karl-Anthony Towns is better at than piling up double-doubles – he had his seventh on Friday – is turning a phrase.”One thing I know is that we may not need to win this tournament,” Towns said, “but we need this tournament.”After overcoming Florida for the third time in five weeks to advance, Towns was waxing poetic about the tournament John Calipari says is for the fans who trekked to Nashville, Tenn., alone. It turns out it might be a bit more meaningful than that.”We need this tournament to grow and continue our process of being the best team we can possibly be going into the NCAA Tournament,” Towns said. “A lot of things we’re going to probably work on here and also we’re going to get better as individuals playing all these great games.”Auburn awaits after OT upsetUK’s next opportunity to play in a “great game” comes Saturday at 1 p.m. against Auburn, which defeated fourth-seeded LSU in overtime, 73-70.The Tigers trailed by seven with 2:45 left in regulation, but continued their improbable SEC Tournament run thanks in large part to a game-tying 3-pointer by K.T. Harrell in the closing seconds. Harrell has scored 73 points in Auburn’s three wins in Nashville and had 17 in the lone regular-season matchup with UK.Kentucky was dominant in that game, scoring a season high in a 110-75 victory. The rematch will tip at 1 p.m. on ESPN.