Faced with very real possibility that their at-large NCAA Tournament hopes could die with a loss against Florida on Saturday (noon on CBS), Coach Cal is hoping survival instincts bring out what he’s been trying to get all season from his players: a will to win; a will to fight.

Season-defining implications appear to be on the line when Kentucky faces Georgia on Thursday night in Athens, Ga. Maintaining the company line of the past couple of weeks, John Calipari said he’s not worried about any of that. All that matters, he says, is having a better grade than the other teams trying to get into the NCAA Tournament.

When Tennessee added insult to Nerlens Noel’s devastating knee injury, John Calipari knew he had to do something different to turn his team’s season around. His method: Put it in the guards’ hands and just let them play.

The burial plot was dug, the flowers were in place and the eulogy had been given. “One week ago we were in coffins,” John Calipari said Tuesday. “People were trying to nail them shut.”

In a halftime ceremony at UK’s game vs. Mississippi State on Wednesday, members of the team will be given school rings to commemorate the 1996 national championship. Of the 15 players on the team’s roster, 11 – Anderson, Sheppard, Delk, Walker, McCarty, Ron Mercer, Anthony Epps, Wayne Turner, Jared Prickett, Oliver Simmons and Jason Lathrem – plan to be in attendance. Pope, Mohammed, Allen Edwards and Cameron Mills will receive their rings individually.