By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Kevin Knox knew things wouldn’t be easy for Kentucky this season.
The Wildcats (21-10) endured a roller-coaster ride before winning four of their last five games of the season. Despite the struggles, Kentucky finished fourth in the final league standings and received a double-bye in this week’s conference tournament set to begin Wednesday in Saint Louis. Kentucky will play Missouri, Georgia or Vanderbilt at 3:30 p.m. Friday in the quarterfinals.
“I knew we would have some ups and downs,” Knox said Tuesday. “All freshmen have their bumps in the road. There’s a lot of obstacles and stuff like that. We went through that and we had our bad times, we had our good times, but, like I said, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I wouldn’t trade my teammates for anything else. I’m glad I came here. I really loved the season. I think we’re in a great spot right now, but definitely we can improve and we will over the next couple weeks.”
Knox said the regular-season finale — an 80-67 loss at Florida last weekend — proved to be a learning experience, one the Wildcats can build on in the postseason.
“The rest of this season, everybody’s going to give their all,” he said. “Florida definitely came out on top. They were hitting a lot of shots and we didn’t really play that well, but that’s how we’re going to get the rest of the season. We just gotta be able to come in mentally prepared and just make sure that we come in and play hard every game because now it’s win or go home. A lot of teams’ seasons are on the line so we gotta be able to come out and play hard like our season is on the line.”
Three days removed from the setback in Gainesville, Gilgeous-Alexander said the Wildcats have “moved on from Florida.”
“We obviously had a bad performance,” he said. “We’re just trying to fix what we did bad. We watched (film) a couple of days ago. We watched and now we’ve moved on.”
Going into the one-and-done portion of the schedule, Gilgeous-Alexander said the Wildcats have changed their mentality.
“(The mentality) is to just go at other teams,” he said. “It’s us against the world. Yeah, we’re just going to try and compete as hard as possible. I think if we compete and do what coach wants us to do, we’ll be fine.”
Despite the struggles this season, both players are ready for the postseason and what they hope is a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
“This is one of the biggest moments of my life, just playing in March Madness, especially at Kentucky,” Knox said. “A lot of people like to watch Kentucky play on TV, so it’s like a dream come true. Just being able to play in this March Madness is amazing. It’s something I dreamed of my whole life.”
Knox also is confident the Wildcats will display the same traits they showed during a four-game winning streak prior to the loss at Florida. Gilgeous-Alexander agreed.
“I think the good team will show up in St. Louis,” he said. “We’ve watched a lot (of film) the last couple of days. We realized we messed up and where we went wrong. I think we’re all in the right mindset, we just have to try and fix them (the mistakes).”
Knox, Gilgeous-Alexander honored
Knox, along with teammate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was honored by the league office Tuesday. Knox was named conference co-freshman of the year, sharing the honor with Alabama freshman guard Colin Setxon. Gilgeous-Alexander was named All-SEC second team by the league coaches.
“It’s a great honor,” Knox said. “It’s been a long season, a lot of ups and downs, but I’m just honored to get that award. I really thank my teammates and everything for that. I wouldn’t have gotten it without them. Like I said, it’s a great honor. It’s a great accomplishment for me and my family.”
Gilgeous-Alexander echoed the same sentiments.
“It’s an honor,” he said. “We play in a really tough conference with a lot of great players. It feels good to be recognized amongst those players. It’s not something I cherish too much though because I’m focused on team goals right now.”
Keith Taylor is sports editor for Kentucky Today. Reach him at keith.taylor@kentuckytoday.com or twitter @keithtaylor21.