‘Dream Come True’: Cats Want to Make Most of March
UK basketball players can seem larger than life. Every once in a while, one of them gives a reminder that it’s just a regular person wearing that block Kentucky lettering across his chest.
Kevin Knox delivered such a reminder on Tuesday.
Asked about taking the floor in tournament play for the first time, Knox described an experience familiar to most anyone who grew up in the basketball-crazed Bluegrass State.
“It’s a dream come true,” Knox said. “I watched it all the time in class. Teachers put it up on the projector and we watched the teams. Now I’m playing in the games. It’s really crazy.”
Knox of course grew up in Tampa, Florida, but he feels like any good Kentuckian would ahead of the Southeastern Conference Tournament this week and the NCAA Tournament soon to follow.
“I’m really happy,” Knox said. “I’m looking really forward to it. I know my parents are really looking forward to it as well. Like I said, it’s a dream come true so hopefully we can come out with a win and get far in the tournament like I wish we would.”
Deep tournament runs would be a welcome end to a season that Knox says has brought its ups and downs, as he expected it would. But now that March is here, Knox is freshly minted as a First-Team All-SEC performer and the Co-SEC Freshman of the Year and his team is well positioned to advance when it counts.
“We went through that and we had our bad times, we had our good times, but, like I said, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else,” Knox said. “I wouldn’t trade my teammates for anything else. I’m glad I came here. I really loved the season. I think we’re in a great spot right now, but definitely we can improve and we will over the next couple weeks.”
UK (21-10) will certainly need to be in top form starting Friday, when the fourth-seeded Wildcats will begin their SEC Tournament run in St. Louis against the winner of a game between fifth-seeded Missouri and either Georgia or Vanderbilt. Missouri is among the eight SEC teams currently projected to make the NCAA Tournament by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, meaning this week is likely to be highly competitive.
“From first until however many teams are in the league, there’s going to be competition in every game,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who joins Knox on the SEC All-Freshman Team and also made Second-Team All-SEC. “Everyone is going to have to bring it.”
In other words, the Cats are going to have to play like the team that won four games in a row before Saturday, not the one that had that streak snapped in an 80-67 loss at Florida in the regular-season finale.
“Players weren’t really playing their best, but if we get everyone to play their best this team is really hard to beat,” Knox said. “We played a lot of games this year, a few games where we just went out and just played all of our best games and everything and we haven’t lost yet. From now on, we have to play like that because it’s win or go home.”
Knox believes the urgency that comes with this time of year will bring the best out of UK.
“I’m pretty sure that the team that won four games in a row will show up for the rest of the year,” Knox said. “We just gotta be able to come out, play together, play hard and play like we did when we won four in a row. If we play like that, we’ll go pretty far in the tournament.”
John Calipari, of course, believes in his team will right the ship as well, but he’s not relying on belief alone. He’s taking an active role by correcting a mistake he believes he made last week.
“I didn’t scrimmage the week before Florida,” Calipari said. “Basically, it was a quick turn. Prior to that, we were scrimmaging every chance we could, and I made a decision. Every once in a while my decisions aren’t right, few and far between, but there are times they’re not right, and this is probably one of them. It took an edge off some guys that we needed to compete and have more of a competitive spirit.”
For Knox, conjuring that competitive spirit shouldn’t be too tough.
“This is one of the biggest moments of my life, just playing in March Madness, especially at Kentucky,” Knox said. “A lot of people like to watch Kentucky play on TV, so it’s like a dream come true. Just being able to play in this March Madness is amazing. It’s something I dreamed of my whole life.”
