The Kentucky Wildcats’ NCAA tournament run came to a close on Sunday, as the Kansas State Wildcats clinched a 75-69 win in the second round to advance to the Sweet 16.

Kentucky had its fair share of struggles on the offensive end against Kansas State, from shooting 41.3 percent from the field to committing 16 total turnovers.

Kentucky had multiple players rise to the occasion in the contest, but there were a few who had games to forget, including Antonio Reeves. On the heels of a formidable 22-point outing against Providence, Reeves shot a lowly 1-15 from the field on Sunday. The senior guard showed promise from beyond the arc during regular season play, but he wound up hitting on a mere one out of his 10 attempts from 3-point land.

During his postgame press conference, Kentucky head coach John Calipari shied away from pinpointing the blame on Reeves for the team’s early exit in the NCAA tournament.

“It hurts you, but I don't want to put it on him,” Calipari said. “We had other guys that didn't post much either, and so it wasn't just one guy.

“Then you are left to playing one way, and that's to try to throw it in to Oscar or try to get one of these two to get a basket, and Chris got that offensive rebound and made a three in the corner. Cason was — you think about it. Here's a guard who has played solely point guard, which has made him a better player, but he goes 9 for 11 and gets nine rebounds. What? We outrebound them by 19.”

Calipari also took some time to touch on his team’s overall performance on the day.

“Tough way to end,” Calipari said. “We had some guys really fight like crazy and then had a couple of guys offensively not play their game the way they played all year, but that stuff happens in this tournament.

“We did a pretty good job on Johnson, and he makes that three. The little kid makes a three. He made a deep three. We miss a couple, and all of a sudden it gets out of hand. These kids fought.”

Overall, Kentucky has not reached the Sweet 16 since the 2019 edition of the NCAA tournament.