Kentucky hasn’t been to an SEC title game in five years. Is now the time to end that skid?

In the first nine seasons of John Calipari’s tenure as Kentucky’s head coach, the Wildcats advanced to eight Southeastern Conference Tournament title games and took the trophy back to Lexington on six of those occasions.

UK has not played in the SEC Tournament championship game in five years. It’s the longest such drought in program history, tying the seasons immediately preceding Calipari’s arrival at UK.

Is this the postseason that the skid comes to an end?

With Kentucky’s surprising 88-79 victory at Arkansas on Saturday afternoon, the Cats (21-10) wrapped up the regular season with a 12-6 record in conference play, good enough for the 3 seed in this week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville.

Their quest for the SEC title will begin around 9:30 p.m. Friday in the tournament quarterfinals. If they don’t advance to Sunday’s league title game, it will stand alone as the longest run without such a trip.

Kentucky advanced to the SEC title game in every tournament but two during the original run of the event, from 1933 to 1952. The tourney was discontinued then and didn’t make a return until the 1978-79 season. UK lost in three of the first four SEC title games to begin the new postseason era, then started winning regularly. From 1984 to 2005, the Cats won the SEC Tournament 13 times and advanced to the title game on two other occasions. Their longest drought without a trip to the championship game during that time lasted three seasons, and they were under a postseason ban for two of those.

Kentucky did not make the SEC title game in either of Tubby Smith’s final two years or the only two seasons of the Billy Gillispie era. Calipari then came in and won two in a row.

Since winning four consecutive titles in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, the Cats haven’t been back to the championship game. No. 2-seeded UK lost to 3-seeded Tennessee in the semis in 2019, the 2020 tournament — where Kentucky would have been the 1 seed — was wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 8-seeded UK lost its first game of the 2021 tournament, and the 3-seeded Cats lost to 2-seeded Tennessee in the semifinals last year.

The participants in those past few title games are a sign of the recent parity in the SEC, with Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee all winning titles in that span, and Louisiana State and Texas A&M advancing to the championship game.

It’s possible that Kentucky will first face a team that beat it in the regular season. The Cats will get either 6-seed Vanderbilt, 11-seed Georgia or 14-seed LSU. Kentucky was dealing with significant injuries — some occurring during the games — that hindered its chances in losses to Vanderbilt and Georgia. The Wildcats narrowly escaped their only meeting with LSU, 74-71 in Rupp Arena on Jan. 3.

Sahvir Wheeler and CJ Fredrick were both out for the loss at Georgia, the first of several games that the Cats had to play without both senior guards. And Wallace was forced to leave the Vanderbilt game with an injury, too — while Wheeler remained out and Fredrick played hurt — the Cats ultimately losing that one with no point guards down the stretch.

If there’s any rhyme or reason to this topsy-turvy UK season, it’s that when the Cats actually have some time to prepare for opponents knowing what their personnel will be, they perform better. That was the case Saturday in Fayetteville, where Calipari was told Cason Wallace and Wheeler would be out, and Fredrick would be limited, ahead of time, giving UK a chance to plan accordingly. Antonio Reeves scored 37 points in the upset victory that followed.

“It just shows, if someone gets hurt, if we’re outmanned — we have guys who can step up and perform,” said Jacob Toppin, who added 21 points Saturday. “That shows what type of team we are. Going into the (SEC) tournament, hopefully we’re healthy and we can get back to our full team strength and start beating people. If we have to play with some guys out, we know — after today — that we can do that.”

And they’ll probably have to do that.

Wheeler will almost certainly be out for the SEC Tournament, according to the timetable that Calipari offered on his recovery last week. (It stretches into NCAA Tournament time.) Fredrick is also likely to remain limited as he continues to battle a rib injury. Wallace is the wild card. He rolled his ankle Wednesday night and was ruled out Saturday with a “lower leg injury.”

Calipari offered no insight on his availability for the SEC Tournament.

“I have no idea,” he replied to a question of whether Wallace would play. “No idea.”

If the Cats get him back by late Friday night, that’ll be a plus. If not, they’ve shown they can make do without key players, if they have time to prepare.

Both of Kentucky’s four-game winning streaks since SEC play began came with key players out but after UK worked through lineup changes with bad losses first. Perhaps the Vandy defeat on Senior Night last week is that loss this time around.

If Kentucky beats the Vanderbilt/Georgia/LSU winner, the Cats will get either Texas A&M, Auburn or Arkansas in the semifinals. And if they get through that game, they’ll be playing for the SEC championship for the first time in five years.

The early odds indicate UK is the most likely team to do just that. DraftKings has the Cats as a 9-2 shot to win the SEC title, with the shortest odds to advance to the championship game of any team on that side of the bracket. (Texas A&M is 5-1 to win the tournament.) Alabama (+170) and Tennessee (+280) — the No. 1 and 5 seeds, respectively, on the other side of the bracket — have the shortest odds to cut down the nets in Nashville, according to DraftKings.

Always one to downplay the overall meaning of the league tournament, Calipari struck a similar tone after Saturday’s victory. This week’s SEC Tournament won’t be as much about winning games, the UK coach said, as it will be about continuing to play the way Kentucky needs to play once the NCAA Tournament — the one that really matters — begins.

“What I’m saying from this point and through the weekend tournament: We have to understand how we’ve got to play, how we’ve got to fight, how we have to execute,” Calipari said. “If that means win games like today, great.”

If it means UK loses on a crazy shot or under strange circumstances, Calipari continued, so be it.

“Stuff like that happens, it happens. But as long as we play, we fight, we execute. We’re preparing for that next tournament. And that’s the most important thing.”

SEC Tournament

At Bridgestone Arena in Nashville

(All times Eastern)

Wednesday

7 p.m.: No. 12 seed South Carolina vs. No. 13 Ole Miss (SEC Network)

About 9:30 p.m.: No. 11 Georgia vs. No. 14 LSU (SEC Network)

Thursday

1 p.m.: No. 8 Florida vs. No. 9 Mississippi State (SEC Network)

About 3:30 p.m.: No. 5 Tennessee vs. South Carolina-Ole Miss winner (SEC Network)

7 p.m.: No. 7 Auburn vs. No. 10 Arkansas (SEC Network)

About 9:30 p.m.: No. 6 Vanderbilt vs. Georgia-LSU winner (SEC Network)

Friday

1 p.m.: No. 1 Alabama vs. Florida-Mississippi State winner (ESPN)

About 3:30 p.m.: No. 4 Missouri vs. Tennessee-South Carolina-Ole Miss winner (ESPN)

7 p.m.: No. 2 Texas A&M vs. Arkansas-Auburn winner (SEC Network)

About 9:30 p.m.: No. 3 Kentucky vs. Georgia-LSU-Vanderbilt winner (SEC Network)

Saturday

Semifinal games at 1:00 and about 3:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Sunday

1 p.m.: Championship game (ESPN)

Here’s the 2023 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament schedule

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