ARLINGTON, Texas — The car the Kentucky Wildcats drove in to make Monday night’s national championship game, it has no rearview mirror. “The guys that have played for me know I just keep looking forward,” John Calipari said on the eve of the national championship game.For all the unforgettable memories this Kentucky group has made, for all the iconic moments that will be played on NCAA Tournament highlight clips for years to come, and for all the stories of this team that will be passed down from generation to generation, these Cats are unaware of it. They have no perspective on the grand picture of exactly what it is they’re doing, the history they are making, simply because they don’t have the time to process it nor the age to understand it.”After we win the game we’re happy and we’re excited, but then we know we have to come right back and play another tough game,” Dakari Johnson said. “I think after Monday we’ll probably soak it all in. Win or lose it’s been a great run, but we haven’t really been thinking about the last two weeks.”And that’s a shame, because it’s been one hell of a run.When Kentucky plays Connecticut on Monday at 9:10 p.m. ET in the national championship game, the Cats will try to put the ultimate cap on a run that’s being hailed — and backed up by the numbers — as one of the most difficult in NCAA Tournament history.UK has toppled the undefeated (Wichita State), knocked off the defending champs (Louisville) and slain the best teams from the country’s best conference (Wisconsin and Michigan). The Cats have done all that not far removed from three of four losses to close the regular season, including an embarrassing loss at South Carolina.Over the last couple of weeks, the players all said they believed Aaron Harrison when he foresaw a great ending to the season after that South Carolina game, but with that adversity well behind them and on the brink of closing out the unthinkable turnaround, Johnson admitted there was some shakiness to the theory.”When we were losing a couple games, we had a little doubt in ourselves, but we just came together as a team,” he said. “We always believed we had the talent. It was just a matter of time when we were going to show fight and compete. I think that’s when we knew it was going to be a great story.”All that’s left now is one more game and one more win for Kentucky’s ninth national title and its second in three seasons. With a victory, Coach Cal will become just the second coach in UK’s illustrious history to win two or more titles. The legendary Adolph Rupp has four.”These guys know how I could care less (about that),” Calipari said. “This is about the joy that these guys up here will get. “The title would be the first of any kind for a team so young. No team has ever won a national championship with five freshman starters, including Michigan’s Fab Five. That group came up a victory short a title, but it is still remembered as one of the all-time teams.This group could surpass them with a win on Monday.”They changed the game,” said Johnson, who has admittedly watched ESPN’s documentary on that group a couple of times. “They didn’t care what anybody thought of them and they believed in themselves. I wouldn’t necessarily compare (us) to them – we don’t really think about that – but they believed and so do we.”The belief by the Cats is probably the most logical reason why Kentucky weathered the sometimes torrential regular-season storm, but some have wondered during this run if a little divine intervention, essentially a date with destiny, doesn’t have something to do with it.After all, UK started the season with 40-0 dreams, lost 10 games in the regular season and then won four straight games in last-second fashion. That seems too good to be true, right? Well, it’s happened before everyone’s eyes the last three weeks.Jarrod Polson, a man of faith, has found himself on the bench sometimes during this run wondering how much destiny can play a part in such an implausible story.”I’m still wondering about that,” he said. “I mean, obviously it feels like destiny is on our side just the way the events have turned out and all of Aaron’s big shots. I hope it’s on our side. I don’t know if God has a lot to do with sports as far as winning and losing goes, but you can never count that out. Hopefully we are a team of destiny.”Julius Randle said a national championship would have nothing to do with destiny and everything to do with a team full of hard workers.”If we are the champions tomorrow, it will be because we did it together, played hard and trusted each other,” he said. The journey, at last, filled with all its rich storylines and unforgettable moments, will come to a close on Monday no matter what happens on that court at AT&T Stadium. This group, no matter what decisions they make in the coming weeks on their futures, will never fully be together again. “The one thing I don’t do a good job of is look back,” Calipari said. “For these guys I keep saying, our destiny is out ahead of us, this team, because we’re still getting better today.”But come midnight tomorrow, that car will come to a stop and all that’s left to look at will be that rearview mirror. Win or lose vs. UConn, it’s all over after Monday.”We’re just trying to cherish the moment and be together as much as possible because we all do love each other,” Marcus Lee said. “We’re just trying to savor the moment.”To bring you more expansive coverage, CoachCal.com and Cat Scratches
will be joining forces for the postseason. You can read the same great
stories you are accustomed to from both sites at CoachCal.com and
UKathletics.com/blog, but now you’ll enjoy even more coverage than
normal.