Kentucky and March: This Duo Is Definitely in Season

March has arrived, and so has Kentucky.

The most amazing statistic at the start of the NCAA tournament is this one: 17-1.

That’s Kentucky’s record in the tournament the last three seasons.

Two NCAA titles. One loss, to Arizona in the 1997 national championship game.

The Wildcats aren’t a favorite this season. Nobody but Duke is.

And Kentucky’s name wasn’t on many tongues after the Wildcats went 3-4 in February, including a loss to Alabama.

Then they swept the Southeastern Conference tournament, beating Auburn for the second time this season in a semifinal game and stopping Arkansas in the final. They head into the first round Friday against New Mexico State with a 25-8 record and a No. 3 seeding in the Midwest.

It’s enough to make you think twice and reconsider the Wildcats.

“March is here. That’s usually our month,” sophomore guard Saul Smith said. “It’s do-or-die time. You know, you lose now and you go home. In the tournament, we don’t like losing. This is Kentucky. We’re all about getting to the last game, playing the entire March, even getting to April 1st or 2nd.”

Scott Padgett, the senior forward who was the leading scorer in last season’s NCAA championship game victory over Utah with 17 points, practically considers November through February the exhibition season.

“We feel like we’ve got some some stuff to prove because obviously this wasn’t the best preseason--uh, regular season, I called it the preseason--for us,” Padgett said, laughing.

Wayne Turner, the senior point guard best known for his less-than-aesthetically-pleasing shot, made four of five three-point shots against Mississippi in Kentucky’s opening SEC tournament game, after making only five three-point shots all season.

“You know, it’s March. It seems like he’s got some kind of mind-calendar or something,” Padgett said. “March comes around and he’s an All-American.”

Perimeter shooting has been a major problem for the Wildcats, who were in danger of setting a record for lowest three-point percentage in Kentucky history as the regular season ended, at 31%, more than four points below last season’s mark.

Whether Kentucky can make shots consistently from outside--and from the free-throw line, where the Wildcats shoot 64%--is the key to how far they go.

“The more you take, the more you’re going to make,” Turner said after a week of practices concentrating on getting more open “threes.” “If we shoot 11 threes and make two, obviously if you stop shooting you’re going to stay at two. If we have guys keep shooting, they’ll find their rhythm. It might not fall, but you’ve got to just keep shooting and hopefully you’ll find that rhythm.”

Whether Kentucky’s March rhythm will return is anyone’s guess.

It was a mediocre season by recent standards and included losses to Pittsburgh, Louisville, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama.

Kentucky lost to Duke respectably, 71-60, in a game in which the Wildcats shot a season-low 34.9%.

But the Wildcats beat UCLA (66-62), possible second-round opponent Kansas (63-45), Miami (74-65), Indiana (70-61 in overtime), Maryland (103-91) and Auburn twice (72-62 and 69-57).

“I don’t think we ever feel we’re a longshot,” Padgett said. “I think we’re always confident. We’ve had a little bit more tough times this year than last year, with double the losses. We have eight.

“At Kentucky, we feel like until that horn goes off, we always think we’re going to win. We could be down 30 and win the game. Any time we lose a game, we feel like the next time out we’re going to make up for the mistakes we made and win the game.”

But there are no more second chances in March.

WAYNE’S WORLD

Turner made only honorable mention All-American, which is about right.

But he figures to set an NCAA record if the Wildcats reach the second round.

That’s because he has played in 147 games in his four-year career--one short of the record Christian Laettner set at Duke from 1989 through ‘92, when the Blue Devils went to four consecutive Final Fours and won two titles.

“I mean, certainly that’s an individual goal,” Turner said. “Right now we’re focused on our team goals. I feel like if we achieve our team goals and make it to the Sweet 16, I’ll have achieved my goal.”

Turner, who has played in three NCAA championship games, can hardly imagine not playing on the final Monday of the season.

“I know I’d want to watch,” he said. “It’s something I’ve always watched. It was just a dream to make it to the first one, then to play in the next two, I was just in wonderland. Hopefully it happens again this year.

“It’s something you get spoiled with being a freshman, sophomore, junior. You feel like your senior year you have something to show the new guys.”

RADIO FREE HOYA

Now that John Thompson is a radio personality, the Washington Post is monitoring his show--heard weekdays on Washington’s WTEM (980) during March--and printing a Thompson quote-of-the-day in the paper.

A federal judge’s ruling Monday that the NCAA cannot use a minimum test score to determine eligibility was in Thompson’s roundhouse, after years of crusading against the policy, contending it is unfair to minorities.

“The thing that I found most interesting is that the judge used [the NCAA’s] own data to overturn the ruling,” Thompson said on the air Monday.

“That was one of the things, many years ago, that we said, that if you just let Proposition 48 run its course, and look at your own research, you will be able to tell that this legislation is discriminatory against minorities and low-income kids.

“And I was just elated at the fact that he took their stick and beat ‘em with it.”

ROOTING FOR THE LITTLE GUY

If you want to pull for the small liberal arts school against the big state school in the first round. . . .

Can you say, “Go Duke”?

Duke has an enrollment of only 6,600.

Florida A&M; has 11,000 students.

An unusual rooting interest developed in the days before the NCAA tournament field was announced Sunday: Mount St. Mary’s cheering for anyone with a worse record than its 15-14 mark.

Florida A&M; came through, at 12-18, getting Mount St. Mary’s off the hook for a first-round game against Duke.

“I sure was pulling for Florida A&M;,” said Mount St. Mary’s guard Gregory Harris, who graduated from DeMatha High School in suburban Washington, D.C. “Especially because a guy named Frank Oliver who graduated from DeMatha in ’96 plays for them. So I wanted them to make it to the tournament, and I wanted them to play Duke.

“There’s going to be a story to tell in the summertime. It was going to come from me or him. Better him.”

QUICK SHOTS

Duke’s Chris Burgess said he’ll consider after the season whether to serve a two-year Mormon mission with the intent of returning to Duke afterward. “That’s something I’ve talked about with my family and my older brother especially, because he recently came back,” said Burgess, a sophomore center from Irvine Woodbridge High. “It’s something I might do and I might not. I’ll really pray and do a lot of thinking when the season’s over with.” Burgess said he didn’t strongly consider a mission before college. “I’ve grown up a lot,” said Burgess, who usually comes off the bench but has started 13 games. “In high school, it was more, ‘How can I get to the next level?’ ” The experiences of his brother as well as seeing other players serve missions made Burgess reconsider. “Mark Madsen from Stanford, he’s done so well. He’s just a man. And a good buddy of mine at Utah, Britton Johnsen, he’s on one. He’s in Texas, and doing well.” Whether center Elton Brand declares for the NBA draft could play a role in Burgess’ decision.

Biggest injustice committed by the NCAA selection committee: Alabama Birmingham made it with a 20-11 record despite losing to Indiana by 37 early in the season and to Louisville by 31 late in the season. UAB’s 79-73 victory over DePaul in a head-to-head game between bubble teams in the Conference USA tournament probably clinched it, but it looks like an example of the selection process failing. . . . The road to the Final Four is difficult enough, but George Washington had a little trouble Tuesday even getting started on the road to Orlando for its first-round game against Indiana tonight because of the snowstorm that hit the East and Midwest. The team left for Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport about noon, but found it closed and went to Dulles International Airport before eventually spending the night in a suburban hotel. . . . Notable lines in Danny Sheridan’s odds published in USA Today: Duke--1:1. Florida A&M--6; gazillion: 1. . . . Let the games begin.