Keion Brooks (SEC Photo)
To claim the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship Kentucky would have to win four games in about a 74-hour span, a tough assignment that few teams have ever been able to do. Kentucky sophomore Keion Brooks Jr. says bring it on.
“I look forward to seeing what we’re really made of. We have a tough task ahead of us, but I really believe it’s something we can do. Let’s go out there and see what we can really do,” Brooks said Tuesday.
Kentucky opens tourney play Thursday against Mississippi State and then would face league champion Alabama Friday if it wins.
“It comes down to, did we fight or not? Four games in four days is tough. If you want to do that, you’ve got to go out there and fight every single possession of every single game. If we do that, we’ve got a really good chance of, like you said, be dancing in that confetti when it’s all over,” Brooks said.
Senior center Olivier Sarr says the team doesn’t care how “realistic” it is to think the Cats can win four straight games to take the title and earn an NCAA Tournament berth.
“We just care about winning games, and we’re going to have to win games. That’s all it is. That’s the only way we have, and that’s the only way we’re thinking,” Sarr said Tuesday. “We’re not thinking about it’s not about a dream or reality or whatever. It is what it is. We’re going to go out there game by game and take it one game at a time and then we’ll see.”
Kentucky has won only nine games all season and never more than three in a row. What makes Sarr think UK can now win four straight?
“Because we’ve shown that we had all of these teams, you know, really close. Either we won or we lost by less than five points or something like that,” Sarr said. “I think it’s something we haven’t done yet, but we’ve showed that we’re the team that can do it. So we all believe in ourselves.”
Having a coach with a proven postseason record of success gives the players more confidence that they can make an SEC tourney run even if the odds are against them.
“The head man, when he’s been through it before and went through these tournaments and won plenty of games and won the tournament multiple times, you know the man who is leading you through the fire knows what he’s doing. That gives us extreme confidence going into it,” Brooks said.
“Coach is ready. I know that he will get us prepared and I know that we will be prepared to go out there and compete,” Sarr said. “I don’t think we want to prove anything to anybody. We just rely on whoever is in the locker room. That’s all we got and we’ve just got to go out there and go on a run. At that point, it’s just what it is.”
Brooks said the players have accepted the position they are in and know there’s nothing to do now but win.
“We know what we have to do to get it done. It’s not going to be easy. We know it’s going to be difficult,” Brooks said. “But our coaching staff has put together game plans to help us succeed and help us be the best on the court. We have to go out there and execute, go out there, and fight and go out there and give it all we’ve got.”
