John Calipari has seen plenty of examples of the tremendous passion of Big Blue fans and yet, he still might be surprised at how big the turnout is for his team at this week's SEC Tournament here in rainy Nashville.  And that serves to drive home the point that the Cats have plenty to play for in this tournament.  Win it--and if Kansas loses in the Big 12 Tournament--and UK could be the overall number one seed for the NCAA Tournament.  And that would likely put the Cats in St. Louis if they advance to the regional and wouldn't it be nice to own the arena while playing for a Final Four?  A good number of Cat fans will turn out whereever the team is sent but it would be nothing like the crowd in St. Louis.

 

I told a friend last week that the best thing for Kentucky was the eight-day stretch from the end of the Georgia game to the trip to Nashville in which the Cats would play just one home game.  Players looked fresher and more upbeat on the trip to Music City than I had seen them in the past few weeks and if that translates to the court, we may see some of Kentucky's best basketball--which was the way it used to work when the Cats came to the SEC Tournament (10 titles between 1992 and 2004 but none since).

 

As for today, I'm taking South Carolina to beat Alabama and face UK in tomorrow's quarterfinal round.

@ South Carolina
Saturday / 6pm eastern
listen on UK-IMG Sports Network
See full schedule