Lamont Butler has performed on Final Four stage before. He wants to get back there with a new school

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Lamont Butler doesn’t want to settle for just one shining moment on a Final Four stage.

The guy who made the buzzer beater to send San Diego State to the 2023 NCAA Tournament championship game is confident he can get back there as a fifth-year senior with Kentucky.

He has his new teammates believing that as well heading into No. 3 seed Kentucky’s Midwest Region semifinal matchup with No. 2 seed Tennessee (29-7) in Indianapolis.

“I will say from day one our focus was winning a national championship,” Butler said. “The expectation here at Kentucky is to win. And we’ve got a bunch of winners here, and we want to continue that tradition.”

This Kentucky team is a little different from any other in its storied history, which is why Butler’s tournament experience with San Diego State has been so essentially.

Kentucky (24-11) didn’t return a single player who scored a point for the Wildcats last season. New coach Mark Pope essentially built a roster from scratch. Nine transfers had to get accustomed to playing together.

Butler emerged as the leader of the group. Kentucky teammate Andrew Carr referenced it before the tournament when he jokingly referred to Butler as “LaMarch.”

Knowing how to make things happen

The Wildcats look up to him in part because they know what he’s accomplished. The 6-foot-2 guard is making his fifth straight tournament appearance. His jumper as time expired in a 2023 NCAA semifinal gave San Diego State a 72-71 victory over Florida Atlantic, sending the Aztecs into a championship game they lost to UConn.

“Most of us talk about what happened to us,” Pope said. “We talk about what happened to us. And champions, winners talk about what they made happen. It’s just the truth. It’s true.

“Lamont Butler is spending his whole lifetime talking about what he makes happen, and that’s a champion’s heart. And he doesn’t spend any time talking about what happened to him. He talks about…

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Publish date : 2025-03-26 18:38:00

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