John Calipari tries to sell Kentucky’s dwindling March Madness hopes

The Kentucky Wildcats couldn’t afford any disastrous slip-ups over the final month, but Saturday’s loss to Georgia could end their March Madness hopes.

Somehow a 3-21 Louisville team playing on Saturday won’t be the biggest disappointment in the Bluegrass State for the day. John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats made sure of that as a trip to Athens  to face a Georgia team with seven losses already in SEC play resulted in a catastrophic loss.

Kentucky was on the bubble for March Madness entering the day at 15-8 overall and coming off of a blowout loss in Rupp Arena to Arkansas earlier in the week. This was the get-right game to make sure any bleeding stopped and to keep the Wildcats on the right side of the “Last Four…” parts of any Bracketology examinations.

Instead, the Wildcats shot 38.5% from the field, lost the turnover battle and only led by as many as four as they took a 75-68 loss on the road to the Bulldogs, one that hurts the team’s chances of making it into the field of 68, as strange and unfortunate as that may sound.

What John Calipari said after Kentucky loss to Georgia with March Madness hopes dwindling

After the loss in Athens, Calipari spoke with the media and the head coach, despite the mounting case for keeping Kentucky out of March Madness, tried to sell everyone on the Wildcats still having the chance to bolster its resumé for the NCAA Tournament.

“All I can tell you is here’s what’s great: We got a kind of schedule that’s let’s go win games and we’ll be fine. Just gonna have to win games,” Calipari said in his postgame press conference. “There are games that we’re playing against teams that you beat those teams (and) you’re fine.”

“It’s not like we don’t have any other chances to go make this right, and we do,” Calipari added.

Though true that Kentucky has six games left on the schedule, only one (Feb. 18 vs. Tennessee at Rupp Arena) is against a ranked opponent while Auburn is the only other team in the Top 5 of the SEC standings as of Saturday.

Kentucky Bracketology: Loss to Georgia knocks Wildcats out of March Madness

If you’re wondering if the talk about Kentucky missing March Madness is just exhaustive hot air to cause a panic, it’s most definitely not. According to ESPN Bracketology expert Joe Lunardi coming into the day, a loss to Georgia knocks the Wildcats out of the NCAA Tournament field.

Calipari is correct in the fact that his team indeed has chances to finish strong. If the Wildcats were to win out and not get embarrassed early in the SEC Tournament, they would have a 22-9 regular-season record and a strong overall finish that should put them into March Madness. But if they were to slip up at any point over this final stretch, it’s going to be a dire situation in Lexington.

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