Did Kentucky basketball just go through its craziest two-game swing in program history?
Even a week removed from what happened, it’s difficult to fathom the swing in emotion and shift in narrative that this Kentucky basketball team went through over a mere four-day period.
Was it the craziest two-game stretch — from such a desperate low to an exhilarating high — in the history of the Wildcats’ program?
It might have been.
UK lost on its home court to lowly South Carolina last Tuesday night and then traveled to Knoxville, where the Cats walked into Thompson-Boling Arena as double-digit underdogs only to shock No. 5-ranked Tennessee.
There’s not really anything like it in the Kentucky basketball history books.
First, the Wildcats have suffered relatively few losses as shocking as the one to South Carolina, which came into Rupp Arena regarded as, by far, the worst team in the Southeastern Conference and one of the lowest-rated squads in all of major college basketball.
And then, to go into Knoxville and beat a top-five team on the road? That was perhaps more stunning, especially given the fact that Tennessee had just defeated South Carolina by 43 points one week earlier.
UK senior guard CJ Fredrick called the South Carolina loss the worst in his college career.
“In my five years of playing — that one kind of stung the most,” he said. “Guys, after that game, sat around the locker room for quite a while and just kind of stared around.”
And how rare is it for Kentucky to beat a top-five team on the road? It’s happened just 13 times since the Associated Press Top 25 rankings started in 1948. But that’s not the most telling stat.
Last weekend marked the first time in program history that an unranked UK basketball team beat a top-five team in a true road game. Ever. The Cats were ranked no worse than No. 12 nationally in their previous 12 road victories over a top-five opponent, and Kentucky was ranked in the top five itself in seven of those wins.
So, yes, UK fans witnessed history-making stuff.
Will that lightning-quick turnaround lead to greater things in March, or will it ultimately be looked back upon as just a positive blip in an unsatisfying season for the Wildcats? We’ll see in a couple of months.
Since the annals of Kentucky basketball have already been sorted through to look for an apt comparison, here are five other notable two-game upswings for the Cats since the first AP Top 25 poll came out 75 years ago.
The Tweak (2013-14)
The loss: No. 1 Florida 84, No. 25 Kentucky 65
The situation: A Wildcats’ roster that featured six McDonald’s All-Americans — and attracted preseason talk of a 40-0 record — had its fair share of stumbles and finished the regular season with a 19-point loss in Gainesville, a game in which the Wildcats were thoroughly outplayed. Florida led UK by 21 points at the half, ultimately handing the Cats their ninth loss heading into the postseason. After this blowout, John Calipari’s team dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time — they started the season ranked No. 1 — and the mood of the Kentucky fan base was grim. Though stacked with talent, these Cats were not projected to do much in March. There was even talk that — with a poor showing in the first game of the league tournament — Kentucky could miss the NCAA Tournament altogether, which UK had done the previous season, ending that campaign in the NIT.
The win: Kentucky 85, Louisiana State 67
The result: The quality of opponent here wasn’t much — LSU finished with a 9-9 record in the Southeastern Conference and ended up in the NIT — but there was plenty of symbolism behind this victory. Calipari had been touting “The Tweak” after losing to Florida, and UK fans got their first look at it against the Tigers. Calipari’s change — putting it simply — turned out to be Kentucky’s guards kicking out and specifically point guard Andrew Harrison looking to pass more. Against LSU, he set a career high with eight assists. The next day against Georgia, he topped that with nine assists. UK lost a rematch with No. 1 Florida the day after that, but it was a 61-60 defeat that went down to the very end. Ultimately, the Cats were given an 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament and rode their newfound confidence all the way to the national title game, where the dream run that started with that win over LSU ended with a loss to UConn.
Pitino vs. Kentucky (2002-03)
The loss: Louisville 81, No. 14 Kentucky 63
The situation: This one didn’t sit well with UK fans. Five years earlier, Tubby Smith had replaced Rick Pitino as Kentucky’s head coach. Smith led the Cats to a national title in his very first season — “with Rick’s players,” some Kentucky fans grumbled, then and now — but UK had not advanced past the Sweet 16 in the three previous seasons, and folks were getting restless. By this point, Pitino had made his return to college basketball — now, unthinkably, leading the Cats’ most-hated rival — and this matchup would be the first time the Tubby-led Wildcats would play the Pitino-led Cardinals in Freedom Hall. UK had just beaten No. 6 Indiana in the same building seven days earlier and would be looking for a similar result. Instead, the Cards ran the Cats out of the arena after halftime, outscoring UK 51-30 in the second half. Not only had Kentucky suffered an embarrassing defeat in the rivalry, this game signaled that Louisville basketball was on its way back. One headline in the next day’s Herald-Leader: “UK fans confront darkest fear: Its name is Pitino.”
The win: No. 20 Kentucky 115, Tennessee State 87
The result: Another one where the follow-up opponent was not all that great — in fact, Tennessee State was downright terrible this season — but this 28-point win two days after the Louisville loss tipped off one of the most impressive runs in modern Kentucky basketball history. The Cats went into this game with a 6-3 record. Starting here, UK ran off an amazing 26 consecutive victories, going a perfect 16-0 in the SEC, winning the league tournament, and finishing as the No. 1 overall team in the country. It looked like Tubby indeed had the program back to its Pitino-era greatness and more banners would be in Kentucky’s immediate future. Three months and one day after that demoralizing loss to Louisville, however, the Cats — with star player Keith Bogans playing on an injured ankle — ran into a monster performance from Dwyane Wade and an 83-69 loss to Marquette in the Elite Eight. Pitino, meanwhile, led the Cards to their first win in an NCAA Tournament game in six years, and he’d have Louisville in the Final Four two seasons later.
The Crispin Brothers (2000-01)
The loss: Penn State 73, No. 22 Kentucky 68
The situation: A little more than two years removed from their 1998 national title, the Wildcats were in a bad spot when Penn State came into Rupp Arena on Nov. 25, 2000. The official attendance that day: 21,319. It’s unlikely any of them have forgotten the name Crispin. UK limped in with a 1-2 record — the Cats started the season ranked No. 12 but lost their opening two games — and this would be the first game in front of the Rupp crowd. Kentucky got torched. Joe Crispin scored 31 points and Jon Crispin added 26, the two brothers combining to go 13-for-23 from three-point range. Kentucky had its worst start to a season in 16 years. The headline across the top of the Herald-Leader sports page the next day: “Wildcats burned to a Crispin.” A day after that, UK fell out of the Top 25.
The win: Kentucky 93, No. 6 North Carolina 76
The result: One week after falling victim to the Crispin brothers, the Cats traveled to Chapel Hill to play a North Carolina team ranked No. 6 in the country and coming off a Final Four run the year before. Much like the UK-Tennessee game of a week ago, these Wildcats fell behind early — down 7-0 to start, trailing by double digits midway through the first half — but rallied, went into halftime with the lead, and ultimately blew out the Heels on their own floor. It was a shocking result and restored some confidence in the Cats, who ended up earning a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament (though they lost in the Sweet 16 to Southern Cal). Penn State ended up being pretty good, too. The Crispins led the Nittany Lions to a 7 seed, and Penn State upset 2-seeded North Carolina in the second round of the tournament that season. The Crispins’ 2000-01 campaign lasted one day longer than Kentucky’s, with Penn State also losing in the Sweet 16.
Wake-up call in Puerto Rico (1998-99)
The loss: Pittsburgh 68, No. 4 Kentucky 56
The situation: The reigning national champions didn’t look the part in the second round of the 1998 Puerto Rico Shootout, where Kentucky was shocked by a Pitt team coming off an 11-16 season. UK was 2-for-22 from the three-point line and made just four of 12 free throws. “We had about 40 open shots that we missed,” said UK forward Scott Padgett. For a program that had been to the national title game in each of the previous three seasons — and had lost only 11 games total in that span — this one was a head-scratcher. Kentucky had a game the very next day, so there wasn’t a ton of time for this to linger. Tubby Smith said as much in the postgame press conference before remembering the hundreds of folks that had traveled to see the Cats play on the island. “We’ve got 600 fans who are going to ask me about this,” he said with a smile.
The win: No. 4 Kentucky 66, No. 10 UCLA 62
The result: The next day, Kentucky defeated 10th-ranked UCLA to close out the Puerto Rico trip. Three days after that, the Cats beat No. 7 Kansas in Chicago. A week later, UK topped No. 11 Indiana in Louisville. And four days after that, the Wildcats earned a 12-point win over No. 2 Maryland in Rupp Arena. That’s how to flip the narrative after an unthinkable loss. Kentucky’s title defense would end in defeat, of course — the Cats fell in the Elite Eight to Michigan State that season — but any worry over the Pitt game was quickly extinguished. Meanwhile, the Panthers lost four of their next five games after upsetting Kentucky and ended up with a 14-16 record and a 5-13 mark in the Big East.
Rebound on the road (1986-87)
The loss: Georgia 69, No. 11 Kentucky 65
The situation: UK had a 6-1 record and was three days removed from beating defending national champion Louisville by 34 points in Freedom Hall, but that U of L bunch was nowhere near as good as the title team from the season before, and the Cats had lost their only game against a ranked opponent to that point. The Georgia game — also in Freedom Hall — marked Kentucky’s SEC opener. The Bulldogs prevailed. Georgia didn’t make a single three-pointer in this game, but the Dogs shot 57.8 percent from the floor and outscored Kentucky 17-6 at the free-throw line. Coach Hugh Durham — a Louisville native and well-versed in UK basketball lore — noted after the game that all he heard while he was in town was talk of Kentucky’s win over the Cards, not chatter regarding the Cats’ upcoming opponent. “They came in like it was a national championship game,” said UK’s Rex Chapman. “We were flat, and they beat our pants off.”
The win: No. 11 Kentucky 63, No. 5 Auburn 60
The result: As far as comparisons to the South Carolina-Tennessee turnaround of a week ago, this comes the closest from one standpoint. That 1986-87 Georgia team was nowhere near as bad as this season’s South Carolina squad, but the Bulldogs weren’t ranked when they came into the commonwealth and left with a victory. And what Kentucky did four days later — win at No. 5 Auburn — marks the only other time in UK basketball history that the Cats have lost a game in their home state and then beaten a top-five team in a true road game next time out. The season didn’t really turn out well for anyone involved. Georgia didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. Auburn fell out of the Top 25 by the end of the season and got bounced in the second round of March Madness. Kentucky lost its next two after upsetting the Tigers, dropped out of the Top 25 shortly thereafter, and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament that March, finishing with an 18-11 record in Coach Eddie Sutton’s second season.
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