Cal downplays importance of first-round bye in SEC

Cal downplays importance of first-round bye in SEC

After Kentucky beat Vanderbilt on Tuesday, forward Terrence Jones said he put a priority on gaining the No. 2 seed in next week’s SEC Tournament. Teams with the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in each division get a first-round bye.

Jones suggested a non-bye team having to win four games in four days might be too much to ask of a Kentucky team with essentially a six-man rotation.

UK Coach John Calipari downplayed the necessity of a bye or its motivational properties.

“My whole thing is the seed,” he said Friday, meaning seed in the NCAA Tournament. “Just play hard, harder than the other guy. Just play with reckless abandon.”