(Photo from bigbluehistory.net)
Today is supposed to be selection Sunday for college basketball. Aside from the first game of the season and the NCAA championship, it’s the most anticipated day of the college basketball season.
However, the NCAA canceled the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic that also ground to a halt all professional, and high school sports.
For the first time since the NCAA Tournament was created, the event was canceled. This is a tournament that has survived world wars, the Olympics, betting scandals, and players making the jump to the NBA directly from high school.
Kentucky was entering the SEC Tournament with a 25-6 record and was the favorite to win yet another tourney title which could have slotted them as high as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. There was talk this team could make a run at a ninth National Championship. Following the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament, there was talk this was the best UK team to not make the postseason.
Not so fast.
There is another UK basketball talked about as the best UK team to not play in the postseason.
Kentucky put together an undefeated season in 1953-54 but never played a postseason game.
Kentucky won the 1949 national title, but allegations of point shaving by three UK players – Ralph Beard, Alex Groza, and Dale Barnstable – dogged the team’s accomplishments. There is no evidence they intentionally threw their only loss that season – a first round NIT loss to Loyola of Chicago. In those days, teams could play in both the NIT and NCAA Tournament in the same season.
Kentucky would go on to win the national title in 1951. But an investigation implicated 33 players that conspired to shave points in 86 college basketball games. The players involved came from the powerful City College of New York as well as Long Island University, Bradley, Toledo, Manhattan College, and Kentucky.
Further investigation determined that UK players received payments of $25-50 from boosters and Coach Adolph Rupp between 1948-51. The SEC moved to suspend Kentucky for the 1952-53 season. Kentucky planned to continue their season without playing conference teams, but the NCAA followed with a one-year ban from competition. In essence, Kentucky basketball was handed one of the first death penalties in NCAA history.
Ironically, the only SEC school to vote against suspending Kentucky from the conference was Tennessee.
There were reports at the time that had Rupp resigned as coach, the NCAA penalty may had been lighter. However, the school decided to keep Rupp as coach. UK stars Cliff Hagan, Lou Tsioropoulos, and Frank Ramsey graduated in 1953 a year ahead of schedule but decided to stay at Kentucky rather than turn pro.
Kentucky played four scrimmage games in 1952-53 with as many as 6,000 people coming out to watch the first one.
With renewed motivation, Kentucky set out to win a national title in 1953-54. Hagan scored a school-record 51 points in their season-opening thrashing of Tulane.
Kentucky was ranked No. 1 for most of the 1953-54 season. In the UKIT, Kentucky beat No. 13 Duke 85-69 and eventual national champion LaSalle 73-60. They rolled through the season unbeaten.
Three years earlier, the SEC voted to eliminate their postseason tournament due mostly in part to Kentucky’s dominance of the event. LSU refused to play Kentucky during the 1953-54 season but after both teams finished SEC play unbeaten, a playoff game was arranged to see who would get the conference bid to the NCAA Tournament. Ramsey scored 30 points to lead UK to a 63-56 win over the Tigers.
All season long, there was a lingering doubt as to whether Hagan, Tsioropoulos, and Ramsey would be eligible for the NCAA Tournament since they had already graduated. At that time, graduate players were not eligible according to NCAA rules.
Following their win over LSU, the NCAA ruled the three graduate players ineligible for the 1954 NCAA Tournament. In protest, Rupp said Kentucky would not play in the NCAA Tournament despite their unbeaten record and No. 1 ranking. The trio accounted for two-thirds of Kentucky’s scoring that year.
The 1953-54 Wildcats are still the only unbeaten team in Kentucky history and considered by some to be one of the best teams to never play in the postseason.
The fallout of the point shaving scandal dogged Rupp for years. He did go on to lead Kentucky to the 1958 national title and retired as the all-time wins leader in college basketball history.
Another interesting fallout involved the UK football program.
Paul “Bear” Bryant was the football coach at Kentucky during the point-shaving scandal and investigation. He had led the Wildcats to eight consecutive winning seasons and an SEC championship in 1950. Bryant led Kentucky to a Sugar Bowl win that season over defending national champion Oklahoma.
When Kentucky was banned from NCAA play in 1952-53, Rupp considered resigning as coach. At a joint basketball-football banquet, the Associated Press reported that Rupp was given a Cadillac, and Bryant was given a cigarette lighter.
When it was obvious Rupp was going to stay at UK, Bryant, who wanted the football program to be the top program on campus, began to look elsewhere.
“If Rupp had retired as basketball coach when they said he was going to I’d probably still be at Kentucky. The trouble was we were too much alike, and he wanted basketball No. 1 and I wanted football No. 1. In an environment like that one or the other has to go,” Bryant told Sports Illustrated in a 1966 interview.
Bryant left Kentucky after the 1953 season for Texas A&M. After four years in College Station, Bryant moved on to Alabama where he coached for 25 seasons, winning 232 games and six national championships.
There will always be discussions about whether the 1953-54 team could have won Rupp another national title. The same will be asked about this year’s UK team that finished 25-6.
(Some information from this story was taken from bigbluehistory.net)
