What John Calipari and Kentucky Players Are Saying Ahead of NCAA Tournament

One of the best events in all of sports is here, March Madness, as the First Four has already kicked off in Dayton. On Thursday, the Kentucky Wildcats will tip off against Oakland Golden Grizzlies, with the hopes of making a deep tournament run.

How are John Calipari and the Wildcats feeling? Confident. Let’s take a look a what they’ve had to say heading into Thursday’s game.

John Calipari

“I think I have a good team, but they’re going to have to go and perform,” Calipari said after seeing Kentucky’s draw on Sunday. That said, he is confident that this season will end on a good note. “Normally, when I have teams like this, the outcome is pretty good.”

This year’s team is a group that enjoys one another, and is adored by the staff and fans. His message to his team, extend that. “You may never, in all of your basketball career, play on a team like this. Where everyone is for you. Everyone is trying to help you, and you’re trying to help them. Let’s extend it.”

To help extend the season, Calipari has a few “tweaks” in mind, a word he has almost used annually since the surprising run to the total game in the 2013-14 season. “We may have a couple tweaks,” Calipari said, speaking on the defensive end. “I got some things I think I’m gonna have to try and do. So I gotta couple tweaks in mind if a team has guards that just break us down. How about if I put both 7-footers in?”

Calipari also believes there could be a breakout in the NCAA Tournament by Aaron Bradshaw and Zvonimir Ivisic, and have a “couple” good games. “I don’t know when it will be, but you guys will look at me and say, ‘Why wasn’t Cal playing this kid? The same thing with Z.”

Players

For many of the players, this will be the first NCAA Tournament that they play in, something they envisioned growing up. “My favorite memory was definitely that UConn team with Kemba Walker,” Rob Dillingham said, likely not remembering that they beat Kentucky in the Final Four. “That’s similar to what we could do.”

Coming off an upset loss to Texas A&M, the players sound refocused before they head to Pittsburgh.”We feel confident, honestly,” Dillingham said. “Every time we’ve lost we have come back with a vain. The only thing we should feel is confidence.”

The sentiment was echoed by Antonio Reeves, who has one thing on his mind. “Just coming back with revenge.”

According to Dillingham, the key for the Kentucky Wildcats is to play their own game

“We can’t worry about other teams. We worry about us,” Dillingham said. We watch our highlights. When we play our game, there’s not a lot of teams that can play as good as us. When we play our game, we rarely lose.”

Sounding confident, Kentucky will open the first round against Oakland on Thursday in Pittsburgh. The game is set for 7:10 p.m. ET and can be seen on CBS.