John Calipari's public commenting during Kentucky's perfect run seemed like a savvy way to deflect the discourse away from his players, but it was rooted in real feelings.
Speaking with the Associated Press, Calipari said it was not until his Wildcats reached the Final Four at 38-0 that he thought there was no way they could lose. But facing a more experienced Wisconsin team, they did.
For Calipari, it was not that he thought his team that year was any better than previous ones, but that any team he brought to the Final Four could and should advance.
"You know, it never entered my mind that we were going to lose," Calipari told the AP at a gym after addressing a group of high school basketball players. "When we were up four with five minutes to go, I thought it was over. Even when Wisconsin made that run, I thought we'd figure it out.
"We never, in my time at Kentucky, we just don't lose that game."
After finishing the previous season as NCAA Tournament runners-up, Kentucky returned several freshmen standouts to compliment Calipari's traditional crop of one-and-done talents. The preseason-number-one team had some real tests throughout their nonconference schedule, such as Kansas, Texas, UNC, UCLA and Louisville.
Somehow it was not until they started playing SEC teams that their perfect record was put in real danger. All along, though the SEC Tournament and all, Calipari knew his team could be beaten.
"When we beat Kansas and UCLA, I thought we had a chance [at a perfect season]," he said. "When we had the overtime games against Ole Miss and Texas A&M, I thought maybe not. But then we started playing really well.
"I asked them if they talked about 40-0, and they said they talked about it all the time.
"Here I was trying to take 40-0 off the table for them, and all the time, they were talking about it."
