Mark Pope Knows it's all about his Players and UK Fans, not him

LB—U made my day–u quoted one of the all-time great KY BBALL games of the 1990s–the 1995 SEC Tournament Championship Game between KY and ARK. Has to be in the top 5 of greatest SEC Tournament games ever played in history too. For some reason, it seems to be very forgotten on the list of biggest KY BBALL wins of all time. At that era of college ball, it was as good as the game could get. You had two of the best five teams in the country, both with the best players, and both with HOF coaches. ARK was the defending national champion, and had their entire starting five, and I think top SEVEN, players, back from that championship team, with POY Corliss Williamson, and they made a run back to the final game that season before losing it to UCLA. And Pitino was in the middle of building and laying the groundwork for the run the Untouchables made the following year, and this win was a big step forward in the powerhouse we became in 1996. This 1995 SEC Tournament is where Antoine Walker was born and became a star, and showed the whole country the kind of juggernaut he was to become the following year. KY got down 38-19 outta the gate with ARK on fire, then we made one of our runs and got it down to within about 6 or 7 at halftime. In the second half, ARK got back up by abt 14-15 again and looked to about have the game out of reach with about 7-8 mins to go. Then we made another run and got the game tied with the ball & the last possession, which launched the beginning of Antoine Walker’s career and the end of Rodrick Rhodes’s. Rhodes misses BOTH chances to win the game at the FT line at the end of regulation—ARK then outscores KY 11-2 to start the OT period, and with 1:30 remaining, KY is down 91-82. The final score: KY 95 ARK 93. and I think the final score was just the second of only two leads KY had for that ENTIRE GAME. it’s still one of the best college bball games I have ever seen, and it has always surprised me that it doesnt seem to be as well-remembered in KY BBALL history as alot of other games. It was more like a Final Four-type game……in some ways, I always felt the comeback KY made in that game was more impressive and improbable than the 31-pt comeback at LSU–just because there was more at stake for both teams, it was a tournament championship game, and again, at that time, the talent those teams had, it was a Final Four game being played in the SEC Tournament. That ARK team in 1995 was on an entirely different level than the LSU team in 1994. And to make MULTIPLE COMEBACKS–and to get down by 9 pts again with only 1:30 left after taking the game to OT– I always felt that was one of the most inspiring performances of the Pitino era…….

2 Responses

Little Baron says:

November 13, 2024 at 9:23 am

Splendid article highlighting the results of the work Pope & the players have done!

The game reminded me of UK coming back from 9 points down with only 90 seconds left in the SECT in CATlanta vs Arkansas. I was there. Those days of exciting teams winning and knowing the SECT is valuable to the fans and the players is back!

James L Milburn IV says:

November 16, 2024 at 11:09 am

LB—U made my day–u quoted one of the all-time great KY BBALL games of the 1990s–the 1995 SEC Tournament Championship Game between KY and ARK. Has to be in the top 5 of greatest SEC Tournament games ever played in history too. For some reason, it seems to be very forgotten on the list of biggest KY BBALL wins of all time. At that era of college ball, it was as good as the game could get. You had two of the best five teams in the country, both with the best players, and both with HOF coaches. ARK was the defending national champion, and had their entire starting five, and I think top SEVEN, players, back from that championship team, with POY Corliss Williamson, and they made a run back to the final game that season before losing it to UCLA. And Pitino was in the middle of building and laying the groundwork for the run the Untouchables made the following year, and this win was a big step forward in the powerhouse we became in 1996. This 1995 SEC Tournament is where Antoine Walker was born and became a star, and showed the whole country the kind of juggernaut he was to become the following year. KY got down 38-19 outta the gate with ARK on fire, then we made one of our runs and got it down to within about 6 or 7 at halftime. In the second half, ARK got back up by abt 14-15 again and looked to about have the game out of reach with about 7-8 mins to go. Then we made another run and got the game tied with the ball & the last possession, which launched the beginning of Antoine Walker’s career and the end of Rodrick Rhodes’s. Rhodes misses BOTH chances to win the game at the FT line at the end of regulation—ARK then outscores KY 11-2 to start the OT period, and with 1:30 remaining, KY is down 91-82. The final score: KY 95 ARK 93. and I think the final score was just the second of only two leads KY had for that ENTIRE GAME. it’s still one of the best college bball games I have ever seen, and it has always surprised me that it doesnt seem to be as well-remembered in KY BBALL history as alot of other games. It was more like a Final Four-type game……in some ways, I always felt the comeback KY made in that game was more impressive and improbable than the 31-pt comeback at LSU–just because there was more at stake for both teams, it was a tournament championship game, and again, at that time, the talent those teams had, it was a Final Four game being played in the SEC Tournament. That ARK team in 1995 was on an entirely different level than the LSU team in 1994. And to make MULTIPLE COMEBACKS–and to get down by 9 pts again with only 1:30 left after taking the game to OT– I always felt that was one of the most inspiring performances of the Pitino era…….