UK Athletics Photo
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky Athletics Department will celebrate the 1983-1984 men’s basketball team, which advanced to the NCAA Final Four and swept the Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament titles, this weekend with festivities surrounding Saturday’s game vs. Georgia inside Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center.
The ceremony will take place during halftime of the game on Saturday, which tips off at 6 p.m. ET and will be televised on SEC Network.
The reunion will be for the members of the team, coaches, and managers. A private reception will tip off the weekend on Friday night, with a public recognition at the game on Saturday.
Limited quantities of a poster commemorating the 1984 team will be distributed for free before the game on the concourse behind sections 42-44 while supplies last.
Head coach Joe B. Hall’s 1983-84 Wildcats went 29-5 overall (14-4 SEC), advanced to the Final Four, finished the season ranked No. 3 nationally, and won the Southeastern Conference regular season and SEC Tournament titles.
The season began on Nov. 26 with a 65-44 home win over No. 6-ranked Louisville, the first of 12 straight victories to begin the campaign. Another highlight came in January with a 74-67 home win over No. 4-ranked Houston. UK wrapped the regular season and clinched the league crown with a pair of home victories over Ole Miss and LSU.
The SEC Tournament, held at Vanderbilt, remains the most closely contested in league history as seven of the nine games were decided by six points or less. Fittingly, the championship game against Auburn went down to a final dramatic shot. Tied at 49, a jumper by Kenny “Sky” Walker hit the rim, bounced high, landed on the rim again, then crawled into the net as the buzzer sounded.
A No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky received a first-round bye, then defeated Brigham Young in a second-round game in Birmingham. Rupp Arena was the host site of the Mideast Regional, where UK defeated Louisville and Illinois to advance to the Final Four. Played in Seattle, the Wildcats fell to Georgetown in the semifinal as the Hoyas went on to win the national championship.
Sam Bowie, who became the second selection in the 1984 NBA Draft, was an All-American and an All-SEC selection, averaging 10.5 points and a team-high 9.2 rebounds per game. He was also named to the All-NCAA Regional team.
Melvin Turpin was a consensus All-American, AII-NCAA Regional Team, AlI-SEC First Team, and All-SEC Tournament honoree. He led the Wildcats in scoring with 15.2 points per game.
Walker earned All-SEC recognition during his sophomore season while averaging 12.4 points per game. Senior Jim Master tallied 9.6 points per game. Dicky Beal was the NCAA Regional Most Outstanding Player and paced the team in assists with 4.4 a contest.
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on X, formerly Twitter, Threads, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and UKathletics.com.
4 Responses
As I remember the Gtown loss we were pretty much tied at the half and don’t think we scored in the second half 🤮
Very, very, very much deserved honor for one of the most underrated and oft-forgotten teams in UKBB history! This team’s roster was absolutely loaded and was another one of our many teams that was robbed of another championship. This was the season that gave birth to Roger Harden’s career as he took over the starting PG role during the season when Beal got hurt. Jim Master was an absolute assassin as a shooter. And think about Sky Walker being on the same team with Bowie and Turpin. Let’s also not forget other future stars like Winston Bennett and James Blackmon. In my opinion, this is one of the best KY teams ever, and it took an apocalyptic meltdown against the best Georgetown team in their school history to deny this team a championship. No doubt in my mind they would have taken care of HOU in the final had they advanced. Remember, they had already beaten the rest of the best of who else was left standing at the end of the tournament–they had already beaten HOU, they made trash-talking Charles Barkley cry in the SEC championship game, and absolutely destroyed LOU in the Revenge Dream Game the first game of the season that was nowhere near as close as that final score indicates, and got Bowie the front cover of Sports Illustrated which I still have to this day saved from my father’s momentos. So the GTOWN game for all intents and purposes was really the championship game. I was only 4 yrs old during this season, but these were the first KY players that I have memories of growing up watching with my father–they were my first UK heroes as a young Big Blue kid born and raised in that ugly city 80 miles to the west. Sky Walker, Sam Bowie, and Winston Bennett have always been at the top of my list of my favorite UK players in history. I got to see them play as a young kid when they used to host an annual game in Freedom Hall during Xmas break, and they would have open practices the day before the game, and I have pictures with all of those players as a young kid from those practices–these guys were like Gods and rock stars to me at 4-5 yrs old! And they were all so nice to me and to all the fans in person– So it means a lot to me personally to see these guys honored today–very much deserved–again, I feel they are remembered unfairly more so for that one loss than what they did accomplish the whole season–so it makes me really happy to see them be able to have their moment back with the fan base in Rupp. Even thought it wasn’t a championship banner, it was still a Final Four banner, and all those banners hanging in Rupp Arena mean something! Congrats to the ’84 CATS and to my first UK heroes of my lifetime!!!!
Well said James. One of my all-time favorite teams
Don’t forget the bench Bret Bearup