Since 1970, the University of Kentucky basketball has started the season 23-1 or better only three times: 1996, 2010, and 2012.
So UK has only gotten off to such a great start three times since 1970 -- but Cal has done it twice in three years.
Here are the other UK teams to start off 23-1 or better:
1948-49: NCAA Champion
1950-51: NCAA Champion
1953-54: Finished undefeated; turned down a bid to the NCAA tournament because the NCAA would not allow some of UK's players to participate
1965-66: Rupp's Runts -- lost in the final to Texas Western
1969-70: Dan Issel's last team; finished the season ranked number 1 -- lost in the Elite Eight to Artis Gilmore's Jacksonville team
The Dan Issel-Artis Gilmore era of basketball is very rich for me.
ReplyDeleteThat 1970 season would have been absolutely devastating to me. That was the year UK fell behind UCLA for good -- and everyone on the UK message board who saw the Jacksonville game said UK was jobbed by the officials.
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