John Calipari wants fans to remember team for their joy, not the first-round loss

At times, it felt like this season followed a movie script. After a historically bad year that did not include an NCAA Tournament appearance, John Calipari went back to the drawing board. He rebuilt his coaching staff, bringing back a trusted former assistant, and restocked his roster with veteran transfers, a superstar freshman, and enough heart-tugging stories to make Disney drool. It was almost as though this group was created to debunk all of his critics. The most experienced team in Kentucky Basketball history with true role players and an old-school big in the middle with a heart of gold. That’s what makes the ending so cruel.

“Sad day,” John Calipari said. “Not just we lose a game. It’s that this season ended with this group and how much joy they brought to me and our staff.”

As they tried to process the season’s stunning ending, each player came back to how close this team was and how much they’ll miss each other.

“You know, I feel — this is such a close group and we have gone through a lot this year,” Kellan Grady said. “We’ve accomplished a lot, and today would have been — it would have been good for us to get a win, and you know, I feel bad that I couldn’t help in better fashion to help us win.”

“The ending doesn’t change how I look at these guys at all,” Keion Brooks said. “I love every single one of them. I love the progress and the progression that we made throughout the whole year, how we came together, how we got better as a team, how guys got better individually.”

“One thing I’m going to say, we are just going to stay together and just trust the process,” Oscar Tshiebwe added. “Losing and winning is part of the game. And I don’t know, just to stay together.”

Calipari: “I’m disappointed for our fans”

The Big Blue Nation did its part to drag Kentucky to victory. “Go Big Blue” chants rang through Gainbridge Fieldhouse all game, especially in the second half and overtime. Calipari delivered a message to fans both in his remarks on the podium and his postgame radio show.

“I’m disappointed for our fans because I know they are here en masse and they were shellshocked like we all were, but I would tell them, we have got the greatest fans; that they travel, and we hate letting them down. I do as a coach and I know these players do.

“But you know, we just — don’t take away from what these kids did. This was really disappointing, devastating. But this team brought a lot of joy to a lot of us. Just hate that it ends this way.”