NEW ORLEANS — The 2010 NCAA Tournament has been in motion for a long time for the Kentucky Wildcats.
When Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart hired head coach John Calipari on March 31, he had an eye on the next March. When John Wall signed with UK just weeks later, he did so to win a national championship. And when Patrick Patterson decided to return to Lexington for his junior season, he did so to take the NCAA Tournament for the first time in his career.
Now he’s making sure he doesn’t miss a moment of it.
To ensure he didn’t miss the Big Dance because of any unforeseen accidents, Patterson surrounded himself in an imaginary safety bubble. The only time he left the Wildcat Lodge was to eat and practice. When he did leave, it was by two feet and not the four wheels of a car.
“I wanted to make sure nothing happened,” said Patterson, who missed the NCAA Tournament in 2008 with an injury. “I wanted to make sure I didn’t get hurt, didn’t get injured, mess up my ankle or get in a car accident. I wanted to make sure nothing happens so I could be here today.”
Now that he’s here, he’s worried he can’t sleep. Nyquil and sleeping spills are the solution to that.
The caution and anxiety are byproducts of a season’s worth of work and expectations. When UK missed the NCAA Tournament last year for this first time in 18 seasons, the Cats, new and old, vowed to restore the program to college basketball’s elite.
They did it in the regular season with a Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament championship, but this, as head coach John Calipari has reminded everyone all season, is what UK has been slowly building for.
On Thursday at 6:15 p.m. CT in New Orleans Arena, UK (32-2) will begin its season-long journey against No. 16 seed East Tennessee State in the first round of the East Region.
“This is the last stage in college basketball for the season,” freshman guard John Wall said. “This is your last statement to leave as a team and do something special.”
Like it or not, an early exit in the NCAA Tournament – or even a second-place finish – will leave a feeling of disappointment for the players, fans and coaches.
“They don’t hang up banners for a conference championship or the SEC Tournament,” Wall said. “They hang banners for national championships.”
It’s an unfair and unenviable position to be in, but it’s the one everyone knew Kentucky would be in when Calipari hauled in the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class last spring. The Cats have weathered doubts about their maturity, outside shooting and strength of schedule all season.
Now they’re a No. 1 seed and a Final Four contender.
Although a No. 16 seed has never defeated a No. 1 seed before and no East Tennessee State player stands taller than 6-foot-8, Calipari warned his players not to think they’re going to waltz into the second round.
“At some point a one is going to get beat by a 16,” Calipari said. “I just hope it’s not here in New Orleans.”
The naysayers point to UK’s lack of inexperience as its potential downfall. Most believe the Cats possess the talent and the coach to make it to the final game, but Kansas has become the hands-on favorite to cut down the nets in Indianapolis.
“A lot of teams want to come at us because of who we are and what individuals we have on our team,” freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins said. “At the same time, if we lose, we were basically supposed to lose because of our inexperience. If we win, we were supposed to win because of our talent.”
Senior Ramon Harris is one of just two players on the team with NCAA Tournament playing experience. Harris spoke on Wednesday of a more confident feeling in this team than the 2008 squad.
Harris believes the talk of youth is overrated. He points to the road battles, the 32-2 record and the clutch plays the freshmen have come up with time and time again.
Just a few days ago, it was two freshmen – Cousins and Wall – who lifted UK to another improbable come-from-behind win to capture the SEC title.
“At this point, we’ve played so many teams in so many situations,” Harris said. “We’ve played in the Garden and in Nashville at Vandy. There are a lot of games that we’ve had that we’ve played that have been like tournament games.”
Harris was asked which is more important in tournament time: talent or inexperience.
“I’d go with talent because it just got us the No. 2 one seed,” Harris said. “Why not take what we have right now? The talent that we have right now has beaten experience.”
If Kentucky is to ride talent for the rest of the season, Calipari believes it will once again have to overcome inexperience. The Cats are the youngest team in the tournament by average years of collegiate experience.
“When you have a team this young, you’re in the survive-and-advance mode,” Calipari said. “What we’re talking about and the message I’ve given the team is land the plane. Land the turbulence. There’s storm, there’s lightning, people drinking their ‘Hater-ade’ and coming at you. There are going to be things written and said. It’s all coming at you. Land the plane. Survive and advance.”
With every win, even one over a lowly 16 seed, the Cats are hoping to prove their doubters wrong.
“We do want to prove people wrong,” Cousins said. “The whole youth thing and us being a brand new team and all that other trash talking, we have a lot of business to prove. Winning the championship is our main goal.”
