Kentucky Taking Business-Like Approach to Tournament

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The final horn sounded Friday night and Kentucky was moving on to the Elite Eight. It has been a season of hard work, ups and downs, record-setting performances and head-scratching defeats. Now the Wildcats (32-5) were moving on to the South Regional finals, one game away from the Final Four.

For most teams, the moment would have been reason to celebrate. For Kentucky, it was the next step in a business plan.

“Just funny, though, after we win, I go in the locker room, there’s no – like it’s, ‘What’s next?’ ” head coach John Calipari said. “They’re not like doing back flips. They’re like, what’s next? And that’s kind of being at Kentucky.”

The 2017 NCAA Tournament has been filled with a number of TV shots of locker rooms that look more like a playground than a place to scheme up game plans. Players have been jumping on chairs, screaming at the top of their lungs and singing the school’s fight song like they’re at a rock concert.

“No, this is business,” UK freshman guard Malik Monk said after the Wildcats’ 86-75 win over third-seeded UCLA in the Sweet 16. “Every game is business. We don’t celebrate until we get to Phoenix. Every game is business.”

But surely De’Aaron Fox, fresh off a 39-point performance against the Bruins, the most ever by a freshman in an NCAA Tournament game, would like to reminisce briefly about his performance from the previous night, right?

“I’m already done with that game,” Fox said. “We’re not thinking about that anymore. We’re focused on North Carolina right now.”

All of this isn’t to say the Wildcats aren’t having fun. The student-athlete in each of them is alive and well. But when it comes to playing in games it’s all about business. And, quite frankly, business has been booming of late.

Kentucky, the youngest team in the NCAA Tournament, has won 14 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the country. After a 22-point blowout loss to Florida, UK rebooted its way to its ongoing streak.

They won the Southeastern Conference regular-season championship by losing just two games. This, of course, being the same conference that produced three of the final eight teams still remaining. They then won the SEC Tournament and each of their first three NCAA Tournament games with a renewed focus on the defensive end.

Aiding the Wildcats in this business plan is an unselfish attitude of finding the man with the hot hand, whoever that may be, and feeding him as often as they can.

“I’m having fun because of these guys,” Calipari said. “I just appreciate the fact that they’re fighting and doing it and doing it together and sharing. De’Aaron had it going, and they all accepted it. We played games where Malik has had it going. We’ve had games where the guy controlling the game has been Isaiah (Briscoe). No one says a word.”

Fox, Monk and Briscoe, along with a slew of other Wildcats, could have gone to just about any school of their choosing. At many of those institutions, they could have put up just about as many shots as they wanted and could have played as many minutes as their fitness could handle.

Instead, they chose Kentucky, where sacrificing for the greater good is demanded in the pursuit of a national championship.

“These kids are all comfortable in their skin,” Calipari said. “They’re comfortable with who they are as people and as players, so they’re not competing for someone else’s minutes, shots. And every one of them have sacrificed. They could have gone somewhere else and shot 30 balls a game, and they’re here sharing.”

Many of these players came to Kentucky as the most highly rated prospects in the country. But instead of promising the players minutes, shots, starting positions and the like, Calipari has done the opposite, instead using both structure and discipline. 

“They want to be challenged,” Calipari said. “They want to be pushed. They don’t want to just come and do what they want to do.”

Kentucky, a program which hangs banners only for Final Fours and national titles, seems to be a program where a business-like approach by the players is fostered. And now just one game away from what would be its 18th Final Four appearance and fifth in eight seasons under Coach Cal, these Wildcats are hardly satisfied with what they’ve accomplished to this point.

“Our goal is not only to just come in the NCAA Tournament and just win games,” Briscoe said. “We’re trying to win it all. With these guys, we’re never satisfied. We always want more. We’ve made it this far, why not win it all? We’re not satisfied with making it to the Elite Eight, or if we win tomorrow making it just to the Final Four, because we came that far for what? Not just to lose, but to win it all.

“Winning games and stuff is fine, but now it’s like, OK, to the next one. Who do we play next? It’s a business. We’re not done yet. We still got work to do, and we’ll see what happens.”