When the lights went out at the Imperial Arena with just under three minutes left in the first half, a decision had to be made: keep playing or call the game. Kentucky was leading 45-27 at the time, so the easy choice would be to call it a night and go enjoy the Atlantis. Not this squad. Tony Barbee told reporters afterwards that the players refused to let the game be called.
“It was hard, the lighting was bad, there was no scoreboard, but it tells you a lot about this team,” Barbee said. “There was a debate going on between the coaches and the people running the event about not playing the second half.