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NCAA 2019 tournament support is now defined. John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats will be a No. 2 seed in the Midwest via Kansas City.
This will be the second time under Calipari that the Wildcats are a seed 2. The first time was in 2017, when a Wildcats team led by playmaker De'Aaron Fox, now at the Kings, went to the Elite Eight before being eliminated by North Carolina.
The result is not surprising that after their loss to the Tennessee Volunteers in the semi-finals of the SEC tournament.
Teams in Kentucky include North Carolina Tar Heels (1 seed), seed 1, Kansas Jayhawks (4) and SEC tournament champion Auburn Tigers (5).
Kentucky will start Thursday in Jacksonville, Florida against the Abilene Christian Wildcats.
If Kentucky wants to progress, there is a chance for them to play Seton Hall (10 seeded), which they lost at Madison Square Garden in December.
After the revelation of support, Calipari and some of his players reacted to the news.
Here is an overview of what they had to say via UK Athletics.
John Calipari
How did the draw for the NCAA Tournament unfold?
"That's fine, I mean, I thought we could play Louisville, I thought it was thin, but it was nothing, it does not happen, but it does not happen. I mean, this thing has a lot of good teams, the teams from our little corner of the fork, one of them beat us, the other is the team you knew, and then, Abilene Christian, I do not I do not know much about it, but if they think it is they shoot in 3. Which means that if they win 20, we lose in the first round. of the year, it's over.Listen, we used the year to prepare these kids for this tournament and the events we just went through where you have chances, two things that are out of your control, two things that go under your control, then all of a sudden you drop a game What a great lesson I remember in 2012, we had only to be five minutes, then we dropped the rope and lost. That's what's been better in 2012. We'll see. "
If Kentucky was the No. 1 seed against the # 2 Duke in Charlotte …
"Well, when I was in Memphis, we played Texas A & M in Houston, then Texas in San Antonio and we were the best seed. It happens against me. "
The idea of playing Kansas in Kansas City …
"I did not even look, so I do not know, you tell me stuff. Look, all the teams right now are hot, cool. You have teams that are a bit battered. You're just trying to survive, game after game. These kids are so young, I told them to stop watching games because you do not need anything other than what you have on hand. You must have this free spirit and any anxiety you feel watching games is stupid and wasted. The teams you think you can play end up being beaten. Stay in the moment. Last year we had a crazy race the year before. Both games, we had a chance to win and advance. He stayed in the last room or the last two. The way Nick (Richards) and EJ (Montgomery) played in the first half, first half! Immanuel (Quickley) is improved. Jamarl (Baker Jr.) has no chance, but I told him that you would have a chance in this tournament. The main reason is; I know I can get him in because he can defend. He is engaged with our team defensively. I said that you are entering the game and doing something. It's crazy, all of a sudden people will talk about you. But you must be ready.
If the team has learned the lessons of defeat against Tennessee …
"Let's hope Reid (Travis) will not have three difficult calls. These three calls were really difficult, which made her out of the game. He would have been in this game and I imagine he would have had that ball. But it's the other guys, as you have to fight. It's a dog fight and you have to give them credit. They continued to give him bumps, but guess what? They continued to do them. Then, this kid takes turn three (Grant) Williams, it shows how mentally tough he is, not just physically. Throwing his body, collapsing in all directions, being fouled, the charges were blocked, but that did not matter, because he had made an infernal fire and he had scored three in the corner. We had some turnovers, you know. I even told them when I look at the stats, I can not believe we lost that game. I'll look at the tape, but if you look at the statistics line, how did we lose that? And until you have a charge called, a walk called, a step out of bounds … who went out? Did our guys go out, did their guy come out? These three turnovers put us at 11, we had eight turnovers against this team? Come on. That's why I said I felt good about going, let's go, play. Not even unhappy, we play Thursday because we did not play this afternoon, so let's play Thursday. "
Play a team "on edge" …
"Everyone will have an advantage. Everyone is playing for his life and his survival. Can a team resume training? You can not play at the tournament. You know why? Because you can do it in 15 minutes. You can not play up to the opponent because you can do it for 15 minutes. You have to play your training, you play your conditioning. And you can do it for 40 minutes and if you can play for 40 minutes, you'll have a chance to win every game you play. You may not win them all because many other factors are at stake, but you put yourself in the best position to win if you can play if your team can play 40 the way it is able to do it . "
On your reaction to North Carolina being the third # 1 seed of ACC ….
"I mean, that's what it is. That's what they felt. That's what it is. "
On the Tennessee carve a place in Louisville …
"I'm going to call him and tell him I had to do it a couple of times and actually do it against you when he was in Texas."
If you watched games in North Carolina this year …
"I have not watched them since we played. Guys look, I look The last frontier, Life below zero, someone looks at these? All the time I tell my wife, I can do it. She's like, but you can not do that. Build off the grid, Someone look at this? I give you tips to help your culture. No, I did not look at the Excellent chef, even this episode I am not. I do not have time for that. So, I do not look at other teams. I can watch my own team and watch the opponents we play. I would like to have a life to be able to play a game for five minutes and watch it. I think I watched Duke's game against North Carolina for about three minutes in the first half. North Carolina, I think I was like wow and then they told me what the score was, and I told how it was happening in the world. North Carolina plays well. The leader plays well. They are good. I do not worry about them, we have to go through Abilene Christian. That's all I'm worried about right now. "
On the fact that Belmont is excited to make an offer …
"Yes, Rick Byrd and I are good friends. Coach Byrd, they let us use their gym again and we talked about it. I told him with what you did, you deserve to be in this situation, you should be on the run and what happens is all of a sudden, all these teams of bubbles start to appear and if you are Belmont, you are like what it did. They deserve to be there and who wants to play them? I mean, go ahead, they'll take 30 3 and run their business and run. I do not want to play them either. He is not a good player.
How do you get freshmen to play their training …
"It's difficult, but you talk about it. I was crammed just to say play training, how can we do that? What kind of game are we doing here? We did it a thousand times, we played training, did not do what you want to do, do not do what you did in high school, it does not work here. And that's where your coaching comes in. You take a guy and coach him immediately. Is that the training, is that what you know? You ask, and why would you do that? You can not be on it. Then you put them back and they understand that. It's a process when you have young guys. "
It's easy to spot players who are not following their training …
"No. Often the game goes on and they're a bit tired, I even said that we had ridden Ashton (Hagans) and now he's tired of the last minute and a half or two minutes. We climbed it and went up, pick and roll so it was like they could not protect themselves, well it was him. "
After being allowed to participate in the SEC tournament …
"All the signs are positive. I felt like I had done what I needed to do in terms of treatment before playing these two games and putting myself in a good position. I feel really good and very strong. I look forward to the week ahead. It was good to have these two matches, to get back to my rhythm, to feel good in my body, I'm definitely in a great place for the week ahead. "
If the team preferred to be in the NCAA tournament …
"I will not say any preference. I think the coaches have done a great job in keeping us focused on the main focus of the past few weeks. Even today, looking at parentheses, no one really talked about it until our names were announced and we knew where we were going. I attribute to them the merit of keeping our vision of the tunnel and concentrating only on that. As I said, it's out of our reach, when we wanted to play in a region or not, we really had no control over it. "
In the draw of the NCAA tournament of the team …
"Were excited, I mean, sitting there watching the teams come up, beating heart, excited to see where we were going to play, but now everything is in stone, I'm excited to see the screening report and get ready for the match. "
On the support of the Midwest region …
"We did not really look too far. I think that's something the coach (John Calipari) told us just after the hooks were published: we only focus on the first game and we start from there with a tunnel vision. Somehow, go into a hole and really worry about the next part, so for us who are looking at potential matches and that sort of thing, we're not really going too far. But of course, we are excited for this Thursday game, looking forward to going out there and going forward. "
Do not play in Louisville …
"It's out of our hands. I mean, it's going to move the way it's going to happen in the end. We have no control over that, but our fans are moving where we are going. So I'm very happy to see how many people are coming to Thursday. I'm sure it will be in numbers, but I'm excited to be able to go. "
Want to play in the March tournament …
"Yes, I'm really excited. As you said, it's one of the main reasons I came here was to participate in the tournament for a national championship. So this is the beginning of this adventure and I am excited about Thursday and excited to get this result next month with my teammates and really see what we can do. "
On how the defeat against Tennessee will affect them in the NCAA Tournament …
"I mean, it just makes it harder. We lost yesterday, but I think it motivates us even more to go out and do what we have to do to take care of our business. "
To participate in an intense match for the NCAA Tournament …
"It was good for us. For the week before the tournament to be such an environment, playing against another big team like us, fighting it and competing with it like we did, in the atmosphere we created, was a good one. learning experience for us.
On the draw of the NCAA Tournament …
"Absolutely excited. I can not wait to go out there and compete. "
On a possible revenge with Seton Hall …
"We are only talking one game at a time. We had our match and we are just worried about it. Then, if Seaton Hall is located, we will take care of it when the time comes. But until then, we only worry about our first opponent. "
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