Calipari talks UK’s elephant

FAYETTEVILLE — Kentucky Coach John Calipari hardly addressed the Wildcats’ clinching their 49th SEC regular-season championship during his postgame remarks after a 73-66 victory over Auburn at Rupp Arena on Saturday.

When a reporter tried to ask Calipari about the shape of Kentucky’s season, considering the Wildcats’ 67-64 loss at Rupp Arena on Nov. 12 to Evansville and a pair of losses during a December event in Las Vegas, the coach continually interrupted.

“You know what’s amazing?” he asked rhetorically. “When anybody talks about our season, they say, ‘Evansville, Evansville, Evansville.’

“Did we play anybody else? How can they be any good, they lost to Evansville?”

Calipari talked about not having E.J. Montgomery available in the loss to Evansville and having two players — Ashton Hagans and Nick Richards — slowed by the flu in that game.

“I told them after, I never stopped believing in this group,” said Calipari, finally addressing the bigger picture. “I knew we’d be fine. I knew we’d be a team that was playing in March.

“All the stuff we’re going through is good. It’s not so much winning our league … or winning our league tournament. It is what are we learning or preparing for so when we walk into March we’re ready, like our teams historically have been. Evansville, Evansville, Evansville.”

Calipari also discussed how playing in a physical game as Kentucky did against Auburn will benefit his team.

“This team is getting better,” he said. “They’re doing it. But that was another rock fight. When you went up for a rebound, you were feeling stuff. Something in your neck. Something in your back.

“When you were coming off a screen or driving, it wasn’t like a clear lane. We proved to us that in that kind of game where it’s, ‘We’re letting it go,’ that we can perform.”

Kentucky (24-5, 14-2 SEC) is 16-2 since losing 69-66 to Utah and 71-65 to Ohio State in back-to-back games in the CBS Sports Classic in Las Vegas.