It happened again.

For the second time in three seasons, Kentucky basketball was on the wrong end of a stunning NCAA Tournament upset loss.

In 2022 in Indianapolis, it was 15-seeded Saint Peter’s. In 2024 in Pittsburgh, it was 14-seeded Oakland.

The Golden Grizzlies upset the 3-seeded Wildcats 80-76 on Thursday night in a first-round NCAA Tournament game at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

UK ends the 2023-24 season with a 23-10 overall record and plenty of what-ifs for a campaign that harbored Final Four and, at times, national championship hopes. Kentucky hasn’t made it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2019.

Following the shocking loss, UK head coach John Calipari met with media members in Pittsburgh.

Here’s everything Calipari said after his Cats suffered another embarrassing early exit from March Madness.

Opening statement: Let me, first of all, tell you Oakland played a heck of a game. They made some unbelievable shots. We were basically in a box and one late. You know, you go through this, and I’ve been in the ups and downs of this sport, but this one I’m really hurting for them, because there’s other years your team, you max out and you lose a game and you’re like, geez.

This team, I really felt, could have done so much more and our fans were here again. I just — I feel bad for our fans. Wish we would have played a little bit better, but it’s hard when I look at this and I go, this season these guys got so much better, were so good to each other, celebrated. To define their season and our season with this game, it’s the sport we’re in. It’s the, you know, it’s what we do.

But that’s what I’m disappointed for them, because they — they deserve this. The preparation, I thought they were great. I thought the spirit was great. I thought we tried to keep it light, but this is — this tournament, this kind of stuff. But this one hit me hard for them, because again, I just thought I had a team that could do some stuff.

Q. John, you said many times that this team was built for March. What went wrong tonight to kind of go away from your belief in the team? What happened tonight to go away from what you thought this team could be?

We made some critical mistakes at critical times again today. I mean we had our chances. As good as they played and as many shots as they made, we still had our chances. And both on defense and offense.And when you have a really young team and you look at where did the mistakes come from, they were freshmen.They had performed on the road in hostile environments that I didn’t expect some of the stuff today. But they have gotten so much better in what they’re doing. They never stopped. They fought.