John Calipari and UK fans may never get over not winning the 2015 national title. (Photo by Vicky Graff)
Readers sometimes provide the very best column ideas like the one that a vaughtsviews.com reader recently posed: Best team to not win the championship during each (major) coach’s era.
What a great question to ponder and debate going back to coach Adolph Rupp to Joe Hall to Rick Pitino to Eddie Sutton to Billy Gillispie to John Calipari.
Okay, let’s throw out Gillispie. He had no team good enough to win a national title. And I took out Sutton because he did not win a national title like the other four coaches did.
Rupp tests my memory a little more but I will go with my heart and take the 1966 known as “Rupp’s Runts” because of its lack of size. That team featured Larry Conley, Pat Riley, Louie Dampier, Thad Jaracz and Tommy Kron. It far exceeded expectations before losing to Texas Western in that historic championship game.
I went with that team over the 1970 team that had UK all-time leading scorer Dan Issel along with All-American Mike Pratt and Larry Steele and was ranked No. 1 going into the NCAA Tournament. However, it lost in the regional final to Artis Gilmore and Jacksonville.
If you think it is the 1970 team over the 1966 team, I get that. Either one could have been national champion.
For Hall, part of me wants to go with the 1977 team that lost in the regional final to North Carolina. Or the 1975 team that upset No. 1 Indiana only to lose in the title game to UCLA in John Wooden’s final year. But I still think my vote goes to the 1984 team that fell apart in the national semifinals against Georgetown when it lost 53-40.
How could a team with Sam Bowie, Kenny Walker, Melvin Turpin, Winston Bennett, Jim Master, Dicky Beal, James Blackmon and Roger Harden miss 40 of 53 shots and 30 of 33 shots in the second half.
For Rick Pitino, it has to be the 1992 Unforgettables. You can define best a lot of way but to me there has never been a “better” team than that one with Jamal Mashburn, Deron Feldhous, John Pelphrey, Richie Farmer and Sean Woods. They resorted dignity to UK basketball only to lose on that heartbreaking shot by Duke’s Christian Laettner.
You could make a case for the 1997 team that lost to Arizona in the national championship game, but I will stick with 1992.
Smith’s biggest missed chance had to be 2003 when the Cats lost to Marquette 83-69 in the regional final. Any veteran UK fan knows that is the game Dwayne Wade became a national name with a 29-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist performance against UK but also remembers it was the game where UK star Keith Bogans was nowhere near himself due to a sprained ankle suffered the previous game. Bogans was 4-for-11 from the field and UK could not recover.
Kentucky also shot 4-for-16 from 3-point range and 15 of 24 at the foul line. The team with Gerald Fitch, Erik Daniels, Marquis Estill, Chuck Hayes, Cliff Hawkins, Kelenna Azubuike and others that had been so special all season got derailed by Bogans’ ankle injury and Wade’s national breakout game.
For Calipari, it’s a no-brainer. The 2015 team that was 38-0 and overloaded with talent from Karl Anthony Towns to Devin Booker to the Harrison twins to Willie Cauley-Stein and more lost to Wisconsin in the national semifinal. Late shot clock violations doomed the Cats who used a two-platoon system to dominate college basketball until it mattered most. I’m not sure Kentucky fans will ever get over that loss — and Calipari probably won’t either.
Let me know which teams you would pick as the biggest near misses for Rupp, Hall, Pitino, Smith and Calipari.
12 Responses
That was the point where UK became the Silver standard and Duke the Gold standard. Sorry, but coach K is a better coach than Cal and he proved it by winning three gold metals to Cal’s none. After 2015, Duke became the cool team and has stomped all over Cal. Second place is not bad, but it is truly not the gold standard once owned by Kentucky
Pitino was the 97 National runner-ups
Hall would be 84 team that lost to Georgetown in final four
Sutton was his first at Kentucky 85-86
Rupp’s 53-54 team was his only undefeated season. Because All Americans Cliff Hagen and Frank Ramsey were graduate students they were prohibited from participating in the NCAA Tournament.
You are right. I was just 2 then so obviously made me more partial to Rupp’s Runts. Good call
Rupp: I wasn’t around for many of his teams, but seems the 1954 team that was 25-0 in some NCAA conspiracy to keep Rupp out.
Hall: this one is tough because my first memory of UK BB is the 1975 team. Everyone around me said the refs gifted the NC title game to Wooden as a retirement gift, but I was only 7 years old, so couldn’t really form my own opinion.
However, I was fully expecting the 1977 team to win it all and was certain they were the better team if it had not been for the Dean Smith "I am too scared to play you" 4 corner stall ball. Still gets under my skin. I would have hated to be a UNC fan at that time – it must have felt like cheap, unearned wins.
But 1984 takes the Joe Hall cake. There is no way a team that good can play a first half that great and follow it up with that 2nd half mess. How is that possible?
That was Hall’s downfall – after that, everything he did was judged through a different lens. Most people in extreme western Ky were certain he was paid to throw the game.
Pitino: I understand saying the 1992 team but that team wasn’t expected to win like they did. They fall into the same class as the 2014 team – the most unexpected tournament success.
I fully expected the 1993 team to win it all. It had all of the ingredients: an exceptional shooting/passing point guard, a good shot blocking, running big man, wings who could shoot from deep, including an unstoppable one on one Mashburn; unbelievable defense with defensive stoppers in Brown and Braddy; and a deep deep bench.
At the end of the Michigan Final Four game, the offense was "give the ball to Mashburn and get out of the way"….. but then, he fouled out.
1995: Tony Delk told me a few years ago that he thought the 1995 team was better than the 1996 team. It was just an off night and they were better than Stackhouse’s UNC team.
For a lot of years, I thought they could have won it all if not for an uncontrollable, inconsistent Rhodes. He played well when things were going well, but let his emotions override his abilities. In some games, Pitino could not seem to stop him from shooting jump shots instead of driving the lane where he really excelled. I thought he shot us out of the Elite 8.
I have softened a bit on Rhodes after what Delk had to say, but either way, that time Dean Smith wasn’t there with 4 corners, but they did slow us down a whole lot in that game.
1997: that team looked to be better than all of CBB until Derek Anderson went down.
They fell to a good Arizona team in the NC Title game, but UK was still the best team, even without Anderson.
How does an opponent get 41 trips to the foul line in a NC game?? 4 of our players fouled out! But even after that, Nazi going 0-6 at the foul line was the difference in the OT game.
I will pick 1997 with Anderson in the lineup as Pitino’s best without a NC.
But without Anderson in the lineup, it is a 3 way tie to me – the 1993, 1995, and 1997 teams were all equally great and capable of winning it all in a slightly alternate universe.
Tubby: the 2003 team had everything it needed to win it all and then some.
If not for that brick wall named Dwayne Wade, Tubby could have 2 NC’s.
That night, he looked like the future NBA superstar. No one could have stopped him that night.
But such was the story of Tubby’s teams. Always what could have been.
Cal: the 2015 – top to bottom, maybe the most talented CBB team ever to not win a championship.
But don’t forget, the 2010 Wall, Cousins, Patterson and the 2017 Monk, Fox, Adebayo teams had everything needed to win it all, except, of course, the 6 games in a row it actually takes to do it.
Great answers with a lot of thought going into each one. And like you, still think 2010 might actually have been Calipari’s best team
Fabulous Five won the NCAA and Olympics;
Ramsey,Hagan,Tsiopolous went undefeated, but wasn’t allowed to play in the NCAA Tournament
Great team that would have easily won title. you are right Claude
Best "team" I’ve seen and not a collection of real good players but team I’ve seen not win a championship was the unforgettables. That was a team in every aspect.
Amen Grant
Very on point. "Team"! A bunch of dedicated true believers in their Kentucky school who put more heart and hustle into every game than any team of 5 stars from New York and Chicago.
If only I could coach….. when a good player says "I grew up watching and rooting for UK", I would say "sign here!"
The 2015 te am was definitely the best e ever how..and why Calipari lost that game is probably because he failed to play Booker and urist who were faster than the twins..who knows why he coached that way. We will probably never know..or will we………..