Kentucky was sent home on Friday for the fourth straight year in Nashville

The SEC Tournament will move on to the weekend without the Kentucky Wildcats. Not long ago, that sentence would have been hard to fathom. But the program with 32 tournament championships has slipped from greatness.

This year, Kentucky wasn’t even expected to make the weekend as the No. 9 seed, starting play on Wednesday morning. Still, the end of the road is a harsh reality for the many, many Kentucky fans who once again took over Nashville in support of their team. A fresh blue wave had just arrived for the quarterfinals.

Regular-season champ Florida was the better team, though, and a double-digit favorite out in the desert. The Gators’ early run proved to be the difference-maker on the scoreboard, just as it was in the first two meetings. Florida also dominated the glass while Kentucky struggled to knock down shots for most of the game.

Zooming out, the quarterfinal loss to Florida was Kentucky’s fourth straight Friday exit in Nashville. Last year, it was Alabama, the No. 3 seed, that packed Mark Pope’s bags. Before that, John Calipari’s Kentucky teams were upset twice in the quarterfinals, losing to No. 7 Texas A&M in 2024 and No. 6 Vanderbilt in 2023.

Kentucky hasn’t made the weekend in Nashville since 2019, and hasn’t played for the championship in Nashville since 2017.

Meanwhile, the fans keep showing up, paying the outrageous prices to turn Nashville blue every March. In a tournament once nicknamed the Kentucky Invitational, the Wildcats are heading home again before the weekend.

Kentucky’s last four Fridays in the SEC Tournament

• 2023: No. 3 Kentucky vs. No. 6 Vanderbilt (80-73)
• 2024: No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 7 Texas A&M (97-87)
• 2025: No. 3 Alabama vs. No. 6 Kentucky (99-70)
• 2026: No. 1 Florida vs. No. 9 Kentucky (71-63)