John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats enter the 2016 NCAA Tournament as the No. 4 seed, and the head coach is none too happy about the results of the bracket.
Speaking with Rece Davis on ESPN’s “Bracketology” show, Calipari ripped into the seeding and expressed frustration at the committee for using a “moving target” of issues to rank teams from year to year, including topics like road wins, top-50 wins and RPI.
He then launched into what has to be one of the most entertaining, playful rants we’ve seen in a while.
“They’re not stealing my joy,” he said on ESPN. “We just won a championship. We’ll go to Des Moines. I wouldn’t have minded going to Anchorage. I thought they’d try to send us to Anchorage because look I watched ‘The Alaska Bush People’ and ‘The Last Frontier’. I would have had the Kilchers right behind my bench. It would have been unbelievable up there.”
It’s easy to understand how Calipari would be frustrated that Texas A&M is somehow ranked higher than his Wildcats after they took down the Aggies in overtime for the SEC title Sunday.
That said, Kentucky hasn’t exactly been a powerhouse this year, posting a record of 26-8 and losing some shockers. The seeding process is not exactly a science, and we saw other strange results as well including Michigan State failing to secure a top seed.
If the Wildcats can somehow keep their current momentum going, then their No. 4 seed shouldn’t matter much anyway.
This team, while not as magically gifted with NBA talent as some of Calipari’s best squads in the past, still has plenty of firepower and can hang with any team in the nation when things are going well.