[Stardust]

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.

“They pass the ball like the Rupp’s Runts, they run the break like the Fabulous Five, they shoot it maybe like my ’78 team and they’re talented and can play any style like Rick’s (Pitino) ’96 team,” Hall said. “They’re extremely talented, and they’re so much a team. It’s been fun to watch them put this together.”

UK also won national titles in 1948, ’49, ’51 and ’58 under Adolph Rupp, in ’96 under Pitino and in ’98 under Tubby Smith.

Smith, now the coach at Minnesota, said he doesn’t like to compare teams, but he watched the final two games from the front row and said he was impressed.

“It’s different eras, but this team is as talented as any team that I have seen at Kentucky,” he said. “I saw some of Joe B. Hall’s teams and some great ones, Adolph Rupp had some great players and Rick Pitino had some great guys.

“But 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. They’re all (starters) going to be pros and you don’t see that very often.”

Hall said the “special thing” about this year’s 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.

“I’ve been to half of their practices and I have seen the development,” Hall said. “They have come a long, long way and I give a lot of credit to coach (John) Calipari. It’s like they have been playing together for several years.

“They’re extremely talented, they play tough defense, they work together as a team and they listen to their coach. That’s an unusual combination these days.”

But still even Hall and several others noted the ’96 teams “might have been” a little better than this year’s edition of the Wildcats.

Scott Padgett, now an assistant coach at Manhattan, was on the ’96 and ’98 teams, and said he would note the ’96 team had more depth. Seven players off the ’96 teams, including Tony Delk, Antoine Walker and Ron Mercer went on to play in the NBA.

“If you go top six then you could argue that all day,” Padgett said. “But with the depth, I would say ‘96 would be slightly a head. And when I say that, I mean a hair.

“In ’96, 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 ’96 team, I really couldn’t argue with them. I can see both sides, I just think ’96 had more depth.”

The ’96 team went 34-2 and their margin of victory that season in the NCAA Tournament was 21.5. This year’s team had an average margin of 11.8 and they didn’t 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 ’96 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.

“Every team is different,” said Pitino, the current Louisville coach who lost to UK in the national semifinals. “We 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.”

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.

“I think there have been a lot of Kentucky teams with a lot of talent,” Pratt said. “Maybe 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.

“Not 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.”

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.

“I can tell you one thing,” Padgett said. “No matter what people think about them, the Kentucky fans are going to be talking about them forever.”http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2...t|Sports|p

[Stardust]

[Image: http://cmsimg.courier-journal.com/apps/p...team-ever-]

[RunItUpTheGut]

The 1996 Kentucky Basketball team wasnt only the best UK team ever, they are the best college basketball team of all time. Period.

[Stardust]

^ I won't argue that!

[Wildcatk23]

Its hard to Compare Eras.

[PaintsvilleTigerfan]

If both teams came to play the 96 team would win by 10-15. You are talking about the best team to ever play the sport.

[Stardust]

^ agreed, It may be hard to compare era's, but it's easy to see that a team 10 deep that never takes off the pressure is THAT GOOD!

[RunItUpTheGut]

The 96 team invented the word swag that so many of these young teams wish they had.