Favorite ALL TIME KENTUCKY TEAMS

[lrsky]

This group of fine young men has inspired me so much this year.
That ineffable quality of...we want to win, we try to win, we know what it takes to win...is rare in any team. Maybe I'm cynical in my old age, but it seems rarer these days than in the past.
So I thought I'd list my FAVORITE UK Teams in order...for fun...no right answers of course. Maybe insert comments.
I'd love to hear your favorites.

All Time Favorites In order

RUPP'S RUNTS '65 '66

Without question, my favorite team.
Coming off a 13-13 season in '64/'65...nobody expected much. The tallest player on the team was Cliff Berger and he was not a starter.
When they beat Lou Henson's Illinois Team he said...'Oh, there a good 'little team'...but wait until they run into a big boy.'
Well, they finished 27/2....a loss at Tenn a week after beating them down, then the famous Texas Western game...Riley's infected foot (cut open tennis shoe it was so swollen) Conley and others (Larry the worst) sick with the flu.
Don't think we'd have beaten very many teams that night....especially a good one like TW.
Heart...and like this team the knowledge of how to win...
Best passing team, BY FAR, that I've seen at UK in the 50+ years I've watched.


THE UNFORGETTABLES

Long about the end of the '80s UK Basketball had sunk into some abyss that I never want to see again.
Recruiting...WHAT RECRUITING?
And the envelope.

I went to the state tourney in '87 saw Feldhaus and Pelphrey play. I was excited about them coming to KY, but not ecstatic. They were pretty good players...but...BUT, not championship caliber players.
At 6'7" not big enough to be anything but a 4 in the rotation...and who'd we have other than them?
I remember after Sutton left (thank GOD)...Dick Vitale predicted that Pitino would win '2 Games' and that's being generous.
My God...a UK Team, 'lucky to win 2 games'.
Well...they won 14...had a break even season...and I'll swear to you that I had as much fun that season as I've ever had...(except for the Runts).
Those boys had so much heart....HEART!!
Enter Mash and guess what.
The Greatest Game Ever...is a metaphor, or rather shining example of just exactly what made these guys The Unforgettables.
I loved that team...wow...what a blend of heart, smarts, great coaching...a real confluence of events.
Pitino set some standards for revolutionizing basketball that year. Press/Press/Press, and then Press some more.
I mean really, other than a few put backs....was Gimel Martinez a really good player...not really, but he played within a great system. This team is why NO ONE SHOULD BE MAD AT RICK!!!!!


1978

Sheer poetry in Jack...that beautiful silky smooth jumper of his.
Hollywood would never, never write a script like that, as it is so unlikely...'Naaaah....guy hits 18/27....he's 6'4", rebounds better than MKG? HOW????
Then King and Kong...Robey Phillips...
The only (forgive me please basketball gods) weakness on the team was the shooting guard. Claytor and Shidler.
The team went 30/2....kicked a$$ all year, losing to Alabama by a freakish 16 points 'Folding Five'...Hall called them.
Then an overtime to LSU AT LSU...
Beat Mich State and the great...no, make that GREAT MAGIC JOHNSON....we did it with a play called 'Guard Around'....Robey setting a pick at the top of the key...Macy taking the screen/handoff...getting fouled.
He hit, (memory 10/11 freethrows)...we won what 52/49?

These are three...there are many more...but I loved these teams...they personify for me what is good and great about UK Basketball.
I'd love to hear yours.

OH WAIT....

2011/2012.
I won't write the synopsis of this team yet...I'll wait for the last chapter when they're cutting the nets in a couple of weeks...but these guys are RIGHT THERE!!!!!

Larry