04-08-2012, 06:47 PM
Let the comparisons begin.
The second Marquis Teague tossed the game ball high into the air as the final second clicked off the clock and the University of Kentucky claimed its eighth national title on Monday night, the chatter already had begun.
The Wildcats finished 38-2, became just the third team to go undefeated in regular-season conference action and win a national title (joining Indiana in 1976 and Kentucky in 1996) and became the second overall No. 1 seed (Florida, 2007) to win it all since the NCAA began ranking the four No. 1 seeds in 2004.
But where do they rank in school history?
A brief survey of some former UK players and coaches produced a variety of opinions.
Former coach Joe B. Hall, who won the 1978 championship, puts this team way up the charts.
âThey pass the ball like the Ruppâs Runts, they run the break like the Fabulous Five, they shoot it maybe like my â78 team and theyâre talented and can play any style like Rickâs (Pitino) â96 team,â Hall said. âTheyâre extremely talented, and theyâre so much a team. Itâs been fun to watch them put this together.â
UK also won national titles in 1948, â49, â51 and â58 under Adolph Rupp, in â96 under Pitino and in â98 under Tubby Smith.
Smith, now the coach at Minnesota, said he doesnât like to compare teams, but he watched the final two games from the front row and said he was impressed.
âItâs different eras, but this team is as talented as any team that I have seen at Kentucky,â he said. âI saw some of Joe B. Hallâs teams and some great ones, Adolph Rupp had some great players and Rick Pitino had some great guys.
âBut I would say Anthony Davis is as talented a player that I have seen at Kentucky. They have such balance and so many good players. Theyâre all (starters) going to be pros and you donât see that very often.â
Hall said the âspecial thingâ about this yearâs team is that freshmen and sophomores scored 62 of 67 points in the title game.
The Wildcats looked seasoned despite having three freshmen in the starting lineup, including Davis, Marquis Teague and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
âIâve been to half of their practices and I have seen the development,â Hall said. âThey have come a long, long way and I give a lot of credit to coach (John) Calipari. Itâs like they have been playing together for several years.
âTheyâre extremely talented, they play tough defense, they work together as a team and they listen to their coach. Thatâs an unusual combination these days.â
But still even Hall and several others noted the â96 teams âmight have beenâ a little better than this yearâs edition of the Wildcats.
Scott Padgett, now an assistant coach at Manhattan, was on the â96 and â98 teams, and said he would note the â96 team had more depth. Seven players off the â96 teams, including Tony Delk, Antoine Walker and Ron Mercer went on to play in the NBA.
âIf you go top six then you could argue that all day,â Padgett said. âBut with the depth, I would say â96 would be slightly a head. And when I say that, I mean a hair.
âIn â96, we went 10 or 11 deep. He was really only playing six. Having said that, these guys were really good. If anybody said they were better than the â96 team, I really couldnât argue with them. I can see both sides, I just think â96 had more depth.â
The â96 team went 34-2 and their margin of victory that season in the NCAA Tournament was 21.5. This yearâs team had an average margin of 11.8 and they didnât play a seed higher than a No. 3 until the title game win over second-seed Kansas.
Both teams went 16-0 in the Southeastern Conference but the â96 team crushed conference foes by 21.5 points a game and that season four SEC teams made it into the Sweet 16 round of the tournament and two into the Final Four.
âEvery team is different,â said Pitino, the current Louisville coach who lost to UK in the national semifinals. âWe had very few close games in basketball. We were a very deep team - much deeper than this team. But their six are every bit as good as our six, so you can't really compare eras. I will say this that Anthony Davis is as fine a basketball player as there is. They have a great basketball team.â
Former UK player Mike Pratt, the current analyst for the UK radio network, said he could see both sides and notes both teams were talented.
But Pratt likes the way this team came together.
âI think there have been a lot of Kentucky teams with a lot of talent,â Pratt said. âMaybe Rick's (Pitino) team had more talent back in 1996. Maybe Cal's first team (2010) here was more talented. But I don't think any of them, when you talk about playing as a team, none of them played together like this one. That is what separates this one. Not only the talent but the way they played together at both ends of the floor.
âNot only do they share the ball, but when they're playing they really do play good defense. They like to block shots, but they don't care who gets it or who gets the credit. It's old-school basketbal, Sixties basketball, Seventies basketball. Instead of the one-on-one, I've got mine, you get yours, here we've got guys who are looking out for other guys. It's all about the team. I'm not saying any of the other teams didn't have that. I just think this team had the most.â
While players, coaches and fans will likely debate for a long time. The Wildcats title has the three-year Calipari run is one of the best in school history.
The Wildcats went to the Elite Eight two years ago and last season lost to eventual champion Connecticut in the national semifinals.
âI can tell you one thing,â Padgett said. âNo matter what people think about them, the Kentucky fans are going to be talking about them forever.âhttp://www.courier-journal.com/article/2...t|Sports|p
The second Marquis Teague tossed the game ball high into the air as the final second clicked off the clock and the University of Kentucky claimed its eighth national title on Monday night, the chatter already had begun.
The Wildcats finished 38-2, became just the third team to go undefeated in regular-season conference action and win a national title (joining Indiana in 1976 and Kentucky in 1996) and became the second overall No. 1 seed (Florida, 2007) to win it all since the NCAA began ranking the four No. 1 seeds in 2004.
But where do they rank in school history?
A brief survey of some former UK players and coaches produced a variety of opinions.
Former coach Joe B. Hall, who won the 1978 championship, puts this team way up the charts.
âThey pass the ball like the Ruppâs Runts, they run the break like the Fabulous Five, they shoot it maybe like my â78 team and theyâre talented and can play any style like Rickâs (Pitino) â96 team,â Hall said. âTheyâre extremely talented, and theyâre so much a team. Itâs been fun to watch them put this together.â
UK also won national titles in 1948, â49, â51 and â58 under Adolph Rupp, in â96 under Pitino and in â98 under Tubby Smith.
Smith, now the coach at Minnesota, said he doesnât like to compare teams, but he watched the final two games from the front row and said he was impressed.
âItâs different eras, but this team is as talented as any team that I have seen at Kentucky,â he said. âI saw some of Joe B. Hallâs teams and some great ones, Adolph Rupp had some great players and Rick Pitino had some great guys.
âBut I would say Anthony Davis is as talented a player that I have seen at Kentucky. They have such balance and so many good players. Theyâre all (starters) going to be pros and you donât see that very often.â
Hall said the âspecial thingâ about this yearâs team is that freshmen and sophomores scored 62 of 67 points in the title game.
The Wildcats looked seasoned despite having three freshmen in the starting lineup, including Davis, Marquis Teague and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
âIâve been to half of their practices and I have seen the development,â Hall said. âThey have come a long, long way and I give a lot of credit to coach (John) Calipari. Itâs like they have been playing together for several years.
âTheyâre extremely talented, they play tough defense, they work together as a team and they listen to their coach. Thatâs an unusual combination these days.â
But still even Hall and several others noted the â96 teams âmight have beenâ a little better than this yearâs edition of the Wildcats.
Scott Padgett, now an assistant coach at Manhattan, was on the â96 and â98 teams, and said he would note the â96 team had more depth. Seven players off the â96 teams, including Tony Delk, Antoine Walker and Ron Mercer went on to play in the NBA.
âIf you go top six then you could argue that all day,â Padgett said. âBut with the depth, I would say â96 would be slightly a head. And when I say that, I mean a hair.
âIn â96, we went 10 or 11 deep. He was really only playing six. Having said that, these guys were really good. If anybody said they were better than the â96 team, I really couldnât argue with them. I can see both sides, I just think â96 had more depth.â
The â96 team went 34-2 and their margin of victory that season in the NCAA Tournament was 21.5. This yearâs team had an average margin of 11.8 and they didnât play a seed higher than a No. 3 until the title game win over second-seed Kansas.
Both teams went 16-0 in the Southeastern Conference but the â96 team crushed conference foes by 21.5 points a game and that season four SEC teams made it into the Sweet 16 round of the tournament and two into the Final Four.
âEvery team is different,â said Pitino, the current Louisville coach who lost to UK in the national semifinals. âWe had very few close games in basketball. We were a very deep team - much deeper than this team. But their six are every bit as good as our six, so you can't really compare eras. I will say this that Anthony Davis is as fine a basketball player as there is. They have a great basketball team.â
Former UK player Mike Pratt, the current analyst for the UK radio network, said he could see both sides and notes both teams were talented.
But Pratt likes the way this team came together.
âI think there have been a lot of Kentucky teams with a lot of talent,â Pratt said. âMaybe Rick's (Pitino) team had more talent back in 1996. Maybe Cal's first team (2010) here was more talented. But I don't think any of them, when you talk about playing as a team, none of them played together like this one. That is what separates this one. Not only the talent but the way they played together at both ends of the floor.
âNot only do they share the ball, but when they're playing they really do play good defense. They like to block shots, but they don't care who gets it or who gets the credit. It's old-school basketbal, Sixties basketball, Seventies basketball. Instead of the one-on-one, I've got mine, you get yours, here we've got guys who are looking out for other guys. It's all about the team. I'm not saying any of the other teams didn't have that. I just think this team had the most.â
While players, coaches and fans will likely debate for a long time. The Wildcats title has the three-year Calipari run is one of the best in school history.
The Wildcats went to the Elite Eight two years ago and last season lost to eventual champion Connecticut in the national semifinals.
âI can tell you one thing,â Padgett said. âNo matter what people think about them, the Kentucky fans are going to be talking about them forever.âhttp://www.courier-journal.com/article/2...t|Sports|p