ATLANTA — The unpredictability of this week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament, which is set to kick off in just hours, likely won’t be as chaotic as the last time the tournament was in Atlanta.That last time, in 2008, a tornado ravaged the Atlanta area, striking the Georgia Dome, forcing the tournament to Georgia Tech and immortalizing the craziest – and scariest – 24 hours in conference tournament history.What this tournament may lack in natural disasters it could make up for in excitement. Kentucky, even with the conference’s third-best record, has actually been tabbed as the favorite. But the support has been far from overwhelming.In one of the more wide open tournaments in recent memory, the conference crown appears to be up for grabs. Will regular-season champion Florida cut down the nets? Can Alabama squash all NCAA Tournament doubts and clinch an automatic berth? Or can Kentucky ride its recent play and massive crowd to a second straight title? What about John Calipari’s darkhorse, Mississippi State?Only UK and Mississippi State enter the tournament having won three or more straight games. Clearly, it could be anybody’s tournament.”We’re on a hot streak right now,” senior forward Josh Harrellson said of the Cats’ chances. “Hopefully we can keep carrying that over. Any team can win the whole thing. Hopefully we can carry over the confidence we had winning at Tennessee and carry it over to a neutral site.”Sticking to a thought process that has, at times, agitated Wildcat fans, Calipari said the SEC Tournament is about preparing for the NCAA Tournament. As much as Calipari would welcome an SEC Tournament title – which would be a league-leading 27th crown – he’d exchange it for a better seed in the Big Dance.”If it helps us get a better seed then let’s go for it,” Calipari said. “I just want my team playing well.”Playing well means having fun, Calipari says. In the days leading up to the tournament, Caliapri has tried to stress to his young team to enjoy the ride and have fun.But what is fun when so much – so many expectations, so many fans, so much tradition – is riding on a group made up largely of 18 and 19 year olds?”You can’t worry about winning,” Calipari said. “You’ve just got to worry about playing hard and executing. You’ve got to recognize each other’s good play. You’ve got to come prepared to practice and really bring it every practice … and you’ve got to help each other during the game so the game is easier for each other and you have fun.”It’s been easier to have fun the last two weeks thanks to a three-game winning streak that has included two close wins and a much-need SEC road victory. In one gratifying second-half comeback against Tennessee, the Cats appeared to not only clinch the East’s No. 2 seed but restore confidence that hasn’t existed for quite some time.By eliminating the road bugaboos and the late-game woes, swagger has been restored.”Even though we lost some games and grew, the best part of it is we’ve gotten better,” Calipari said. “There’s not but a few teams that have improved as much as us. One of them is North Carolina, but they changed point guards. … This team, we didn’t make any changes. We started the same guys. We played the same six. We’ve just gotten better. There’s probably only a small handful of teams – if any – that have improved as much as this team.”Calipari said his team has gone up at least a line in the NCAA Tournament seeding over the last 10 days and maybe even more. There are whispers that Kentucky could move all the way up to a No. 3 seed if it can win the SEC Tournament.”If you keep winning and you beat this and that, maybe you go up another line,” Calipari said. “Maybe you don’t move but you move within that line, from the end of the line to the beginning of the line.”When the Cats (22-6) begin their postseason run Friday at 3:30 p.m. against the winner of the South Carolina-Ole Miss game, it will be about moving on and moving the line.

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