The University of Kentucky men’s basketball program. One of, if not the greatest program in the history of college basketball, and also the most hated teams by other fanbases from around the country. It’s not easy being best at what you do, and anytime you are, you will always have every team and individual outside of your program looking to bring you down and make you suffer defeat out of jealousy. Ironically, as much as those programs believe that whatever strategy they use is actually helping their cause, such as the opposing teams playing extra hard or a fan base being extra hostile, they are actually helping the WIldcats more, as opposed to bringing them down.

Almost every year, Kentucky always begins the season with a new crop of highly-talented freshmen. And every season, professional analysts and college basketball fans from around the country try to solve the mystery as to how this group of inexperienced individuals can build up such a well-rounded team that competes deep into the NCAA tournament against other teams full of upperclassmen. Some may attribute that success to the head coach, John Calipari, who runs a training system at the university that quickly transforms a student-athlete’s body and skills from high school level to a level capable and worthy to compete in the NBA. Those people are right, and Calipari’s system has proven to work miracles in transforming players, but at the end of the day, that is only half the reason as to why Kentucky is successful in postseason play.

When the Wildcats travel on the road to any opponent’s venue, whether it is in non-conference or conference play, every one of those teams treat hosting Kentucky as its biggest moment of the season, feeling almost as if they are preparing to play in a championship game to earn the right to something. That something is national exposure for the program, which could attract larger media attention and better recruits, because anytime Kentucky falls, the whole college basketball world knows about it and it is a big deal. So you would think that scares Kentucky then, right? A highly motivated opposition, a roaring crowd wearing matching shirts, and staring at the fact that is just a small group of them versus a building full of thousands hoping to see them fail is a scary and daunting adversity to overcome, but it is a challenge that the Wildcats always embrace.

This past season, Kentucky has faced this scenario every time it has hit the road. In some instances they have failed, whether it was in losses on the road to Kansas, UCLA or most recently to Texas A&M, losing at the buzzer in overtime. Other times they have found success, such as claiming a victory in a matchup on the road against South Carolina, which they had to accomplish against a hostile crowd without Calipari, who was handed two technical fouls and thrown out of the game within the first three minutes of competition. Despite the outcome, however, each one of these games have always served as a positive for the WIldcats, because it provided them with extremely valuable experience for this upcoming month of tournament play.

In the NCAA tournament, the pressures and anxiety a team experiences are extreme, as it becomes a win or go home scenario for 68 squads hoping to return a national championship to its school and community. So when entering the “big dance,” the teams who are the most battle tested are the most likely to find success, as they are less likely to crack under pressure and know how to handle stressful or intimidating environments or situations. As mentioned earlier, every year, Kentucky enters the tournament as one of those teams, because of all the environments and situations it experiences on the road throughout the regular season. So rather than looking at its road trips as a cursing, the Wildcats embrace those experiences as a blessing to carry it deep into the tournament towards another Final Four or another national championship.

So if you are a college basketball fan of a team that has the pleasure of hosting Kentucky in the regular season, and wish nothing but to see the WIldcats fail in the national tournament, maybe instead of hostility, treat them with

kindness and open hearts. It may just take away the preparation they need to face their competition in the postseason. But at the end of the day, who are we kidding? Opposing teams will always treat Kentucky the same way they always have, and the program will continue to add to its long-standing history of tournament success. Time will tell to see what this year’s group of Wildcats will have in store.