Cats Enjoying First Tourney Experience While Staying in the Moment
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Kentucky and Abilene Christian couldn’t be much more different.
One school is making its record 58th NCAA Tournament appearance, the other its very first. One is among the favorites to reach the Final Four, the other one of the biggest underdogs of the first round.
Yet, there’s one thing almost everyone who will take the floor in Thursday’s first-round matchup between the two schools will have in common: never playing in an NCAA Tournament game.
“This was always a dream come true,” Abilene Christian’s Jaylen Franklin said. “We’ve preached about this for our senior year over the summers, so like we want to go to the NCAA Tournament, we want to go play at the biggest stage. We’re here now, and we’ve just got to make some noise.”
The feeling on the UK side is similar.
“This is kind of my first taste of it, getting in here and getting to shoot around in the arena and really just feel it,” Reid Travis said. “I’m excited for it. I haven’t been in the tournament yet, so just trying to soak up every moment. This is what we worked hard for all season, so just trying to enjoy it.”
Travis is the elder statesman for second-seeded Kentucky (27-6), but even he will be taking the floor for the first time in March Madness as the Cats take on Abilene Christian (27-6) at 7:10 p.m. ET in Jacksonville, Florida. The grad transfer never made the tournament in his first four years at Stanford, meaning Travis is on the same page as most of his teammates even though he’s four years their senior.
“We’re all kind of just feeling it out together,” Travis said. “This is my first tournament and them too. So all kind of just feeling it out together, leaning on the coaches to kind of just get us through and just working hard and taking care of what we can.”
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| Kentucky vs. Abilene Christian | ||
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Thur., March 21 – 7:10 p.m. ET |
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TV: CBS |
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| UK | 2018-19 Stats | ACU |
| 27-6 | Record | 26-6 |
| 15-3 | Conference Record | 14-4 |
| 76.7 | PPG | 74.4 |
| 65.4 | Opp PPG | 63.2 |
| .478 | FG% | .471 |
| .403 | Opp FG% | .431 |
| 38.4 | RPG | 33.2 |
| .364 | 3PT FG% | .387 |
| .350 | Opp 3PT FG% | .330 |
| .740 | FT% | .717 |
| 13.8 | APG | 15.7 |
| 6.0 | SPG | 8.6 |
| 5.1 | BPG | 2.8 |
The lone exceptions are PJ Washington and Nick Richards, sophomores who each were around as UK advanced to the Sweet 16 for the seventh time under John Calipari last season. Other than them, their experience with the tournament is pretty much the same as the members of the Big Blue Nation who will be watching at home Thursday evening.
“I’ve always watched,” Ashton Hagans said. “On my phone, I’ve always got the app. No matter where I was, I’d just turn it on and watch it. When I was in school last year, I watched the whole tournament on my phone. I was just excited to turn it on. That’s what everybody dreams of, watching March Madness. Coming in here playing, it’s just a great experience.”
That experience means the Cats will have a balancing act on their hands between enjoying something they’ve never been a part of before and playing the way they have all season.
“I think you just soak it up,” Travis said. “Don’t change your preparation. My approach is still the same for every game and what I’m going to do to get my body and my mind in the right spot.”
John Calipari has to like hearing that. After all, that’s pretty much what he’s been preaching all season.
“Again, I’m trying to explain to these guys, you don’t play to the opponent, you don’t play to the tournament, you don’t play to the TV or the crowd,” Calipari said. “You play to your training. If you can do that, you’ll be able to do that for 40 minutes. If you do the others, you’re going to be able to play for 15 and it’s not good enough to win in this tournament. And again, I’ve been doing this 30-some years. I mean, it’s play to the training, stay in the moment is the message to these young guys.”
Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament
Kentucky is making its nation-leading 58th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2019 (59 on-court appearances as the 1988 appearance was vacated).
The Wildcats were selected as the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region. The Wildcats will play Abilene Christian, the No. 15 seed in the region, on Thursday, in Jacksonville, Florida.
This is the seventh time in program history the Wildcats have earned a No. 2 seed in the annual event. UK owns a 22-7 record as the No. 2 seed. Most recently, the Cats participated as the No. 2 seed in the South Region of the 2017 NCAA Tournament, falling 75-73 to eventual national champion No. 1 North Carolina in the regional final after defeating the Tar Heels 103-100 in the regular season. Coincidentally, UNC is also the No. 1 seed in UK’s region again.
UK is 47-10 in tournament openers and has won 24 of its last 25 opening-round tournament games. UK owns a 126-51 (record all-time in NCAA action, with its .712 winning percentage the fifth best in NCAA history). This is the sixth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament for the Wildcats and ninth in 10 seasons under John Calipari.
Kentucky is set for its first all-time matchup with Abilene Christian. ACU is coming off a 77-60 win over New Orleans in the championship of the Southland Conference Tournament on Saturday. Abilene Christian will be making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament after making the jump to Division I in 2013-14. ACU is 27-6 on the year and has won eight of its last nine games. Abilene Christian is averaging 74.4 points per game this season and is paced by senior forward Jaren Lewis, who is averaging 13.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.
With a win over Abilene Christian, Kentucky would face the winner of No. 7 Wofford (29-4) and No. 10 Seton Hall (20-13). UK has never faced Wofford, while the Wildcats and Pirates met in December in Madison Square Garden in New York City. Seton Hall claimed an 84-83 decision in overtime for a 2-1 lead in the all-time head-to-head series.
Kentucky is 28-7 (.800) in NCAA Tournament games under the direction of Calipari. Calipari is 53-18 (.746) as a head coach in NCAA Tournament games.
Since Calipari took over the reins at UK, the Wildcats lead the country in:
• NCAA Tournament wins (28)
• Final Four appearances (four)
• Elite Eight appearances (six)
• Sweet 16 appearances (seven)
UK Continuing NCAA Tournament Success under Calipari
UK leads the nation in all-time NCAA Tournament victories with 126, but the Wildcats also lead the country in wins in the tournament since 2010, when John Calipari first led the Wildcats into the Big Dance, entering the 2019 tournament:
28 – Kentucky
23 – Duke
23 – Kansas
22 – North Carolina
18 – Wisconsin, Syracuse
17 – Florida, Gonzaga, Michigan State
16 – Butler, Louisville. Villanova
UK Battle Tested Thanks to Tough Schedule
Kentucky’s schedule, as it is every year under John Calipari, is one of the best in the country.
Entering the NCAA Tournament, UK’s schedule ranked as the 11th toughest in the NCAA’s NET rankings with 15 games vs. quadrant one teams. As the Associated Press Top 25 stood at the end of the regular season, Kentucky’s 2018-19 schedule (including the Southeastern Conference Tournament) featured 12 games vs. opponents either ranked in the AP Top 25 or receiving votes.
The good news is UK has played some of its best basketball against its best competition, boasting a 10-5 record vs. quadrant one teams and a 5-4 mark vs. teams that were ranked in the AP Top 25 at the time of the game.
That includes the victory over top-ranked Tennessee on Feb. 16 and a three-game buzzsaw vs. then-No. 14/12 Auburn on the road, then-No. 22/22 Mississippi State and then-No. 9/10 Kansas at home in January that the Wildcats went 3-0 against. It marked the first time since the 2015 NCAA Tournament UK faced three consecutive foes ranked inside the AP Top 25 and the first time in the regular season since the final three games of the 2005-06 regular season.
In the nonconference portion of the schedule, Kentucky faced the likes of Duke (Nov. 6) in Indianapolis in the State Farm Champions Classic, Seton Hall (Dec. 8) in Madison Square Garden in the Citi Hoops Classic, Utah (Dec. 15) in Rupp Arena, North Carolina (Dec. 22) in Chicago in the CBS Sports Classic and concluded December with a road game at Louisville (Dec. 29). Four of UK’s nonconference opponents made this season’s NCAA Tournament field.
And that’s just the nonconference slate. The SEC got seven teams in the NCAA Tournament and UK played three of those teams at least twice. Four SEC teams ranked in the final regular-season AP Top 25 poll, including three in the top 10. In mid-January, six teams were in the AP Top 25 for the first time since Jan. 21, 2003.
