Oklahoma

Tomorrow the University of Kentucky men's basketball team will play its third game of the year against Oklahoma in the Maui Classic. The game will be played at 5:30 PM Eastern time (12:30 PM Hawaii time). Here are the matchups for this tournament:

UConn v. Wichita State

Michigan State v. Chaminade

Kentucky v. Oklahoma

Washington v. Virginia

So if we beat Oklahoma, we will play Washington for a trip to the finals, where we would play either Michigan State or UConn.

I don't really like this event very much, and a look at the record reveals why. Here is what UK has done in its previous four appearances in the Maui Classic:

1993-94: Won the tournament (beating Texas, Ohio State, and Arizona)

1997-98: Third place (beat Geo. Washington, killed by Arizona, beat Missouri)

2002-03: Third place (beat Arizona State, killed by UVA, beat Gonzaga)

2006-07: Fourth place (beat DePaul, lost to UCLA, blown out by Memphis)

(The Memphis game was the last time UK went up against Coach Cal.)

So that's an all-time UK record of 8-4 with only one trip to the title game. Meanwhile, Duke has won this thing four times and UNC has won it three times. Kentucky's overall record in Hawaii is 10-4 -- the Cats won two games against Hawaiian schools in November of 1985.

The Cats are 2-0 all-time against Oklahoma. On December 21, 1945, UK beat Oklahoma 43-33 in a game at Lexington. The Sooners returned to UK on March 1, 1987, and the Cats beat them 75-74 in a thrilling game that I remember primarily because it was played during one of the very first visits that the future Mrs. GoHeath made to my parents' house in Paducah, and I can remember running into the living room from the dining room (where we were having Sunday dinner) to check the score toward the end of the game. Good times, good times.

It was the last game Kentucky won that season. They lost their first game in the SEC tournament to Auburn the next weekend, 79-72, and they lost in the first round of the NCAAs to Ohio State, 91-77.