Why the Vols Matter

Every UK fan has a game that he or she regards as the most important on the schedule. For most folks in the Jefferson County area, it's Louisville. For others, it's Indiana. For me, it's the annual trip to Knoxville. Let me explain why.

Here is a list of games played since 1965 by Kentucky against UT in Knoxville when the Wildcats were ranked in the AP top 20 (rankings in parentheses):

03/05/1966: Tennessee 69 - 62 (1) Kentucky (Rupp's Runts)
01/22/1968: (4) Tennessee 87 - 59 (8) Kentucky
01/18/1969: Tennessee 66 - 69 (5) Kentucky
03/07/1970: Tennessee 69 - 86 (2) Kentucky
01/16/1971: (18) Tennessee 75 - 71 (10) Kentucky
02/15/1975: Tennessee 103 - 98 (4) Kentucky (UK played for the nat'l title)
03/05/1977: (11) Tennessee 81 - 79 (2) Kentucky
02/25/1978: Tennessee 57 - 68 (2) Kentucky
01/05/1980: Tennessee 49 - 47 (2) Kentucky
02/07/1981: (10) Tennessee 87 - 71 (6) Kentucky
01/09/1982: Tennessee 70 - 66 (3) Kentucky
01/31/1983: Tennessee 65 - 63 (10) Kentucky
02/27/1984: Tennessee 63 - 58 (4) Kentucky (UK went to Final Four)
02/27/1986: Tennessee 60 - 62 (5) Kentucky
01/10/1987: Tennessee 78 - 65 (9) Kentucky
02/17/1988: Tennessee 72 - 70 (9) Kentucky
01/12/1991: Tennessee 74 - 78 (11) Kentucky
01/21/1992: Tennessee 107 - 85 (8) Kentucky (Unforgettables)
02/24/1993: Tennessee 78 - 77 (2) Kentucky (UK went to Final Four)
02/23/1994: Tennessee 73 - 77 (7) Kentucky
02/08/1995: Tennessee 48 - 68 (5) Kentucky
02/17/1996: Tennessee 50 - 90 (2) Kentucky
02/25/1997: Tennessee 64 - 74 (3) Kentucky
01/24/1998: Tennessee 67 - 85 (7) Kentucky
02/28/1999: Tennessee 68 - 61 (13) Kentucky
02/23/2000: (7) Tennessee 74 - 67 (18) Kentucky
02/06/2002: Tennessee 76 - 74 (7) Kentucky (OT)
01/08/2003: Tennessee 71 - 74 (18) Kentucky
01/20/2004: Tennessee 68 - 69 (9) Kentucky (OT)
01/25/2005: Tennessee 62 - 84 (7) Kentucky
02/13/2007: Tennessee 89 - 85 (20) Kentucky
02/27/2010: (19) Tennessee 74 - 65 (2) Kentucky (UK went 35-3)
03/06/2011: Tennessee 58 - 64 (20) Kentucky

Now Kentucky has won over 76 percent of the games it's ever played, and Kentucky's winning percentage as a ranked team is surely even better than that. But in this quite large sample of game -- 33 in all -- UK's record is 14-19, for a winning percentage of 0.424. And remember, these are the best Kentucky teams of the last 45 years. Rupp's Runts? They lost in Knoxville. John Wall? He lost in Knoxville. The Unforgettables? Mashburn's Final Four team? Bowie's Final Four Team? The 1975 National Finalists? They all lost in Knoxville.

Now some of these losses came to pretty good UT teams, but others came to terrible teams and under bizarre circumstances:

In 1993, UK had a three-point lead with almost no time left and fouled UT to prevent them from shooting a three-pointer. Allen Houston made the first FT and missed the second on purpose. In the scramble for the rebound, a Vol scored a two-point basket -- and was fouled. He made the FT to complete the four-point play and win the game. A few weeks later, in the SEC tournament, UK beat UT 101-40.

In 1992, one of the best-shooting teams we ever had went 6-32 from three-point range, and the Vols shot 59 free throws (to only 33 for the Cats).

In 2010, a team featuring four NBA draft picks found itself down 54-35 in the second half, and their desperate rally came up short. A few weeks later, they beat UT 74-45 in the SEC Tournament.

And then, of course, there's the home cooking:

In 1984, UT beat UK in a game where the Vols shot 22 free throws to only 8 for the Cats.

In 1975, UT shot 23 free throws while UK shot only 6.

And in 1980 -- a game I remember vividly for its 49-47 score -- the Vols took 17 free throws, while UK took 2.

Even a lot of Kentucky's wins in Knoxville have been excruciatingly close. Except for a few years in the mid-1990s, when Pitino's teams just overwhelmed UT -- that 90-50 win by the 1996 is one of my very favorite UK games ever -- Kentucky's victories in Knoxville have generally been very difficult.

Ironically, UK tends to play better in Knoxville when they're not expected to do well. Probably the two best games UK ever played under Billy Gillispie were the two in Knoxville. In 2008, with Patrick Patterson injured and UT celebrating a number 1 ranking, the Cats lost by only 3 points. The next year, a UK team that didn't even make the NCAA tournament rolled 90-72 thanks to 54 points by Jodie Meeks.

But this weekend, the Cats are expected to do well. And so I expect the usual misery. Going to UT is the ultimate test in mental fortitude. Anybody can get fired up for a big-time school like Indiana or North Carolina. But can you get excited to play the Vols? Furthermore, unless you can bury UT with three's -- and this year's team won't do that -- you simply have to look past the bad calls, the banging around the basket, and the inevitable shooting spurt by a usually-mediocre Vol. You also have to be patient. This will be a long game -- with lots of time-outs, fouls, and other stoppages in play. You can't let it distract you, and you play hard the whole time. It's no coincidence that UK did really well in Knoxville (three wins from 2003 to 2005) with Chuck Hayes on the roster. Those teams failed in the tournament because, to be honest, they didn't have very much talent. But they did play hard, and so they survived Knoxville.

So do not treat Saturday's game like just another contest. And don't get too stressed out over the unfairness of it all. In a sense, that's the whole point. Life is unfair. And learning how to deal with that fact is an important part of growing up -- both for basketball players, and their fans.