It is easy to utter the words Kentucky parroted as it entered the NCAA tournament.
From the moment it lost its season opener to Western Kentucky, it was a team in chaos, constantly bombarded by dissension and suspensions, by benchings and injuries, by discontented fans and a fight on the team plane and even some shouting matches on the bench.
Through all of that the Wildcats underachieved. After entering the season ranked as high nationally as No. 3, they limped into the tournament 20-9, unranked and as the pedestrian fourth seed in the East. It was no surprise, then, that they appeared for that tournament all cleaned up and striking that pose familiar to any team in disarray.
“We went into this season like we went into last season. We didn’t expect anything to happen,” junior guard Keith Bogans said. “But now that we have the regular season behind us, we came into tournament play, coach told us this is a fresh start. Whatever happened is in the past, leave it in the past. That’s the approach we’re taking.”
“There have been some distractions,” echoed senior forward Tayshaun Prince. “I know that it could have been better, both from an individual standpoint and for the team. But we’re not done yet.”
It is easy to utter those words, but then the Wildcats backed them up with some sterling play. They routed Valparaiso in the first round and held off Tulsa in the second. Now they’re headed toSyracuse, N.Y., for a regional semifinal Friday night against top-seeded Maryland.
“When we communicate for 40 minutes, we’re a great basketball team,” Bogans declared boldly before the tournament.
But many doubted the Wildcats could redeem themselves after a season characterized by mediocrity and so much turmoil they came to be known as “Team Turmoil.”
Kentucky began earning the nickname by bowing to Western Kentucky. It rebounded to win five straight without incident, but then guard Rashaad Carruth refused to take a shot during his team’s victory over Kentucky State in a protest over playing time.
The Wildcats soon came to resemble a soap opera. Forward Marquis Estill and center Marvin Stone received limited minutes against Duke after being late for a team meeting. Senior guard J.P. Blevins broke his wrist against Indiana.
Kentucky refused to release Stone, who wanted to transfer to Louisville, and relented only after three weeks filled with recriminations and a threatened lawsuit.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who had led Kentucky it to the 1996 national title, came back to Lexington for the Cardinals’ game with the Wildcats, and was treated as a returning hero.
Tubby Smith, the current Kentucky coach, benched Bogans for the final 18 minutes of the LSU game after he forced a shot, and then suspended guards Gerald Fitch and Cory Sears after they fought during the team’s flight home from Georgia.
Bogans was benched again, this time for 17:57, for his generally bad play against Tennessee, and then Fitch (again) and forward Erik Daniels were suspended after trying to get into a bar with fake identifications.
Larry Ivy then was fired as Kentucky’s athletic director, and guard Adam Chiles was suspended indefinitely before the start of the SEC tournament, and Fitch was suspended (once again) for the Wildcats’ SEC opener against South Carolina, which the Gamecocks won, sending Kentucky limping into the NCAA tournament.
“After we lost in the SEC tournament, we had a meeting just to see where everyone’s focus was and to talk about what we had to do as a basketball team to make a good run in the tournament,” Prince said. “I think everyone knows now we’re at that point in the season where we can’t have the mistakes we’ve been having. It’s just a matter of going out and playing hard each game.”
They did that while defeating Valparaiso by 15. Then against Tulsa, Prince was simply brilliant, scoring 41 points.
Now, suddenly, they appear refurbished, and that is true, too, of Smith. As his team’s travails mounted, he had grown testy and negative. But as the Wildcats exhibited a refashioned character, he did the same and offered up smiles, humorous stories and expansive answers.
“The kids have responded the right way most of the year,” he said, trying to recap that year.
“A lot of it happened because of the concern–you care about kids and so you question what you’re doing. `Am I doing the right things? Am I handling this young man the right way? What’s going on with him?’ Your concern is always deep, something more than you can write about.
“So I told them to forgive and forget, and that’s what I had to do because [if I didn’t] it would manifest itself in a lot of negative ways. So I tried to look for positive things. That’s what we’ve been doing. We’re looking at the great leadership we’re getting from Tayshaun Prince and J.P. Blevins. We’re looking at us being one of the top teams in the nation, getting the four seed. We’re looking at being co-champions of the Eastern Division of the SEC.
“That’s what I meant by forgetting all the negative things in the past. That was probably leading us to playing poorly, those negative vibes that I was sending out. It starts at the top. If they feel they’re not worthy of praise, they’re going to play that way. So I’ve tried to be more positive.”
