By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COLUMBUS - Kentucky's seniors weren't prepared to address their futures so soon.

"It's crazy," Antwain Barbour said. "I don't know what's next for me."

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos from UK game

Many Wildcats spoke up Sunday about how bad they felt for seniors Erik Daniels, Gerald Fitch, Cliff Hawkins and Barbour, who closed their careers with the loss to Alabama-Birmingham.

"That's probably one of the winningest classes ever at Kentucky," sophomore Ravi Moss said. "Those guys have nothing to hold their head about. They left a great legacy here."

The seniors finished 105-29 with four Southeastern Conference East Division championships, three SEC Tournament titles, three Sweet 16 berths and two No. 1 NCAA Tournament seeds.

Yet they craved a Final Four.

"That's a big hole to not reach a Final Four in your career, especially being at Kentucky, a school that is known for national championships," Fitch said. "It is a big hole. But at the same time, we had a lot of fun, had a great coach, four years of great teammates."

Fitch, who had 17 points Sunday, ended as No. 22 on UK's all-time scoring list with 1,391 points. He also finished fourth in career made 3-pointers (199) and tied for sixth on the career 3-point percentage list with Anthony Epps (39.6 percent).

Daniels, the Princeton High graduate, had a double-double Sunday with 12 points and 10 rebounds. He finished No. 45 on the all-time scoring list with 1,053 points and No. 9 on the career field-goal percentage list (55.2 percent).

Fitch, Daniels and Hawkins have all been invited to the Portsmouth (Va.) Invitational pre-draft camp.

C-USA CURSE: In its last 61 games, UK is 0-4 against Conference USA teams and 54-3 against everyone else. That includes two losses to Louisville, one to Marquette and the defeat Sunday.

OOPS: Ninth-seeded UAB is the lowest-seeded team to beat UK in March since 1987, when ninth-seeded Ohio State beat eighth-seeded UK in the first round. This is probably the team's most stunning postseason loss since 1986, when it was a top seed and lost to 11th seed Louisiana State in the regional finals.

INSIDE SHUT DOWN: UK succeeded inside early. But the Blazers made adjustments and stopped the Wildcats' inside attack.

After the first 12 minutes, in which Daniels scored 10 points, he and fellow post player Chuck Hayes were held to a basket apiece the rest of the way.

UAB's starting big men, Gabe Kennedy (13 points) and Demario Eddins (nine), outscored them 22-18.

The Blazers got in the passing lanes, and the Wildcats struggled to adjust. From the bench, UK coach Tubby Smith kept yelling, "Pass the ball!"

What was UAB doing?

"They weren't doing anything," Daniels said. "The calls weren't going our way. We just couldn't get it going."

DEEPER BENCH: Fatigue was cited as a deciding factor by both coaches. UAB had nine players log 10 or more minutes, as opposed to just six such players for UK.

"You could see the wear and tear," UAB coach Mike Anderson said. "Cliff Hawkins, he had to go out quite a bit. That's what takes place. It gets to your legs. I thought the wear and tear was very evident."

Said Smith: "Our bench was something that . . . gave us some concerns because we logged a lot of minutes Friday night and we got in some foul trouble. We got help from Antwain (Barbour) and some other folks, but we needed a little more help there."

BRAGGING RIGHTS: UAB's Tony Johnson, a native of Morganfield, Ky., said he knows he'll enjoy bragging rights in his hometown.

"Everybody's Kentucky fans where I'm from," he said. "I'm going to enjoy this one."

NOLAN PROUD: UAB hadn't been to the Sweet 16 since 1982. It hadn't won an NCAA Tournament game, period, since 1986 before this season.

So there was reason for the Blazers to celebrate Sunday. No one was more proud than former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, for whom Anderson had been an assistant for 20 years.

An early exit

Kentucky's second-round exit matched the earliest in Tubby Smith's seven seasons. Here are his finishes, with round eliminated in parentheses:

1997-98	35-4 (NCAA champ)
1998-99	28-9 (NCAA 8)
1999-00	23-18 (NCAA 32)
2000-01	24-10 (NCAA 16)
2001-02	22-10 (NCAA 16)
2002-03	32-4 (NCAA 8)

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E-mail nschmidt@enquirer.com