Tubby Smith (Vicky Graff Photo)
Former Kentucky standout Scott Padgett still remembers his team’s final loss during its 1997-98 national championship season in coach Tubby Smith’s first year.
The Cats lost 73-64 in Rupp Arena on Valentine’s Day to Mississippi and were booed by some Big Blue fans. The Cats went on to win the next 13 games, including an 86-84 comeback win over Duke in the NCAA regional final and 86-85 overtime win over Stanford in the national semifinals, to finish the season 35-4.
“After the Ole Miss game I was quoted as saying ‘we were the worst 22-4 team in the history of college basketball,’” Padgett, who hit a key 3-pointer in the Duke comeback, said. “Not a lot of people know what goes on behind the scenes with a team. We had been to back-to-back national championship games and were used to playing a certain way.
“Tubby got there and we just wanted to do what we had been doing. Tubby had his own way and to be honest, his way was a better fit for us (than Rick Pitino’s would have been). We were not as athletic as the previous two teams and pressing (full court) for 40 minutes would not have made sense for us.
“We had to learn ball line defense, more motion offense. I think a lot of us fought that and it took until that loss to Ole Miss for us to have a team meeting and realize if we keep going the way we are going this is not going to end the way we want. So we bought into his two-a-day practices, 6 a.m. practices. But looking back, if we had not lost to Ole Miss we probably never would have won the championship.”
Padgett, a Louisville native who now is an assistant coach at Mississippi State, grew up dreaming of playing for Kentucky like many Kentucky youngsters do.
“With no professional sports in our team, my dream was to play at Kentucky and win a national championship,” Padgett, an 8-year NBA veteran, said. “It was so weird at such a young age in life to have your dreams come true.
“I was lucky to go there but as much as I loved Kentucky the best part was the guys I played with. I am almost 49 and still get on group chats and texts with the guys. We had a special, special group. Very few teams get as close or focused on the process as we did to win that championship. It took me a long time to appreciate that and realize how special it was.”
4 Responses
Years ago, Cameron Mills said it was a combination of Rick Pitino & Tubby Smith who deserve credit for the 1998 Champs. That was a very gracious compliment to include Tubby, who nearly destroyed that team by mid-season, until some of the players too the initiative to play the way Oitino developed them instead of continuing to be restrained and handicapped by the infamous PLOW strapped onto the team by TLT.
UK was fortunate to have had Pitino recruit & develop the 1998 Champs to such a high level of competence that they could coach themselves for the run to the Title.
Just consider the FACTS. Tubby NEVER recruited ONE player he coached who played in the FF. NEVER.
UK had a rudderless BB program between Pitino & Pope. There was one who said the FF was not important & one who said the draft day in 2010 was greater than 7 Title victories & many FF’s, E8’s, S16’s, SEC titles & SECT Titles.
It’s not worth trying to compare how those 2 hurt the legendary UK BB program. Thankfully,
Coach Pope has brought UK back to be a contender. Now we just need for some players who slide backwards into selfish play to STOP doing it… or perhaps pack up & leave.
If not for Tubby the Cats would not have won the Title in 1998. Jeff Sheppard said they had a players meeting and listened to Tubby from that point forward. Tubby ball won the 1998 Title. Not Pitino ball! Pitino could have won the 1997 Title if he would have played Derrick Anderson. However he wouldn’t play him because he didn’t want him to get hurt before the NBA Draft.
You’re right about 1997. Pitino let his ego make the decision not to listen to Andersen or his parents or his doctors who ALL gave clearance &/or stressed they wanted Derek to play! Even if he had been put in the gwme for just the OT, UK could have won that Title.
As for 1998, there will always be various opinions by players and fans. If Billy Donovan had been hired to replace Pitino, then UK would have continued as an elite team year after year for many years instead of becoming a 10-loss team so often. And all of the discussions will never change the actual results since 1997 & 1998.
Also, remember in preseason 1996-97, Pitino made the decision to redshirt Jeff Sheppard due to the fact he thought he had enough talent and depth on that season’s roster to be a good enough title-contending team to be able to get by WITHOUT Shep, still be good enough that year without him, and then save a year of bball for Shep where he could play more the following year. Which as far as Shep’s individual case goes, that part of the deal played out like Pitino intended. But back in the fall of 1996, had Pitino been able to see what would play out, would he have changed his mind on Shep? Because I’m gonna tell u when Derek went down, that team needed desperately a Sheppard to step in and fill that void, and Shep would have been the perfect one! I think they could have won the championship with Shep playing and Derek still out. But remember too, another part of why Rick redshirted Shep was because he felt he just wouldn’t be able to get alot of minutes with the full roster that he had going into that season. That’s why he was trying to save Shep for the next season after he would lose more key guys off the ’97 team. Derek was a senior, as was Anthony Epps, and Pitino knew it would be Mercer’s last year too. Remember also, they had Jared Prickett on that team too, and he was a senior, so it was another team who was going to lose a ton of veteran leadership at the end of the year. But I mean when u look at that roster for that season, like the full entire roster that Pitino had at the beginning of the season with everybody available healthy: Anderson, Mercer, Prickett, Epps, Padgett, Sheppard, Wayne Turner, Allen Edwards, Cameron Mills, Nazr Mohammed, Jamal Magliore—I mean, when u look back at that list today, it really puts in perspective and makes u understand more so why that entire run of Pitino teams in the 90s were so dominant, and why they all won like 90-95% of their games every year. That ’97 team was nicknamed The Unbelievables in the aftermath of the run they went on to make the Final Four and go back to the championship game and come within 5 points in OT of winning back-to-back championships after one of the co-leaders and the heart and soul of that team went down with injury for the season. At the time of that injury, that was an absolute devastation emotionally for that basketball team. And most everybody gave up on them at that point, as far as being a Final Four contender. Everybody knew they would still be a good team, because at that point, it became Mercer’s team–he became the sole leader of the team after Derek went down, and Ron put that entire team on his back and carried the rest of them back to the championship game in one of the most inspiring runs in KY history–in a way, that tournament run was reminiscent of The Unforgettables in 1992, the only difference is the ’97 team had more talent. And the ending of that ’97 season was just about as heartbreaking as the ending of the ’92 season too–both years, oh so close to perfect storybook endings–but fell just short of it. But at the time of Derek’s injury in JAN, NOBODY thought that team had a prayer of going back to the Final 4, much less winning a championship. So to go from where they were in mid-late JAN with that dark cloud hanging over their head to coming within 5 pts in OT of a second straight championship with all of that adversity, their run was another testament to what Pitino was all about as a coach and the empire that he built at KY. And I even remember at the time Pitino saying that that was the best "team" he ever coached at KY……for how they came together after Derek’s injury. And u know, even though they were denied the repeat, the seeds of the ’98 championship were planted during the second half of that season, and especially in both tournaments. The guys who would go on to become THE COMEBACK CATS all were forced into more minutes and forced into carrying a heavier load after Derek went down–guys like Turner, Padgett, Edwards, Mills, Mohammed, Magliore, then u bring Sheppard back off of his redshirt the next year, and another guy who also became eligible that next year after sitting on the bench with the ’97 team after transferring and played a KEY ROLE in that ’98 championship: Heshimu Evans. Alot of people forget about him. But again, it’s a testament to the depth that Pitino was able to recruit and bring in to KY, and the weapons that he always had available waiting on the bench or sitting on the bench as a redshirt or transfer. Pitino had several transfers during his time who who went on to become memorable CATS, and our current coach is one of them! People forget Pope came in and sat on our bench during Travis Ford’s senior year and Jeff Sheppard’s freshman year! That’s why UK fans fell so much in love with Pitino’s teams–because back then, most guys STAYED at least 2 or 3 years, and most of them at that time were still staying 4!!! Only the top top stars were leaving early back then, and even they stayed 2 years. Antoine Walker and Mercer stayed 2 yrs. Mashburn stayed 3 years. Tony Delk and Walter McCarty stayed 4 years!! It was just a different time for college bball, and im sorry, it was better. Fans got to know the players over the course of a few years and fell in love with them. And it was so much fun to see Pitino DEVELOP not only his star players but also his role players. Unlike CAL, he didn’t just recruit 4 or 5 high school all stars and throw them all out on the court together in their first year and try to win a championship with them, and then have 3 or 4 backups who just sat the bench and never played and then ended up transferring out, and then left just 2 or 3 walkons on the bench. Pitino built teams the right way, and he coached up and developed ALL of them so as to have multiple weapons to throw out at teams and wear teams down with. But along that ride, he was also developing them for the NBA. And Rick got plenty of guys drafted the same as CAL—for those of u on here who don’t know anything about the history of this bball program, which I know is just a select few of u, go look it up!! The only difference is Pitino didnt push them to the draft after one year. He allowed his players to make their OWN decisions about that. Nowadays, the kids want it all, RIGHT NOW!!!! GIVE IT TO ME NOW–no work, and no patience, whatsoever!! And yes, Pitino put the future of Derek Anderson’s own playing career ahead of him playing in that 1997 NCAA tournament–Derek was dressing out and going thru practice with the team by the time they got to Salt Lake City– but it was because during those practices for the West Regionals, someone came down hard and undercut Derek on a block or a screen or something, and Derek went down hard again, and Pitino went green over it. Up until then, Pitino was wrestling with the idea of playing Derek, or maybe at least trying to get to the Final 4 without them, then maybe put him in if we got that far, which we did. And remember, Derek did come in to that Final 4 game against Minnesota and shot the two technical foul free throws, which gave an emotional lift to that team, and helped propel them to that win. But I have heard many many KY fans over the years that have gone by since then who have given Pitino a ton of credit for looking out for Derek’s best interest and trying to help preserve his pro career by NOT taking the chance on getting him injured again to where he could never play again. They have always said the EASY thing for Pitino to have done would have been to throw him out there either in the Regionals or the Final 4 knowing he was medically cleared to play by doctors and do everything he could to help UK win the championship. I have mixed emotions about that to be honest with u. I can see both sides of that coin. It was hard for the fans to take at the time after what had happened that season seeing Anderson out there in uniform medically cleared to play but not playing. It was honestly kind of more than anybody could take at the time–dealing with what they know "should have been". But I didnt see ego involved on Pitino’s part in making that decision–I saw what was a genuine concern and care over the health of that kid and trying to preserve his bball future. It was different than CAL’s situation, where pimping out as many NBA draft prospects as he could for the sake of his own ego to be able to say "look at what I did for so-and-so" is all he cared about. And in his recent years faking injuries with certain players to "protect their draft status". He no longer cared anything about trying to build teams to win games and win championships for the University of Kentucky. Pitino, on the other hand, WAS–and Derek Anderson was genuinely hurt, and back then, college bball players were GROWN-ASS MEN. They didn’t sit out a gazillion games over every ache and pain and "bad mental health" day that they had. Guys sucked shit up. Especially playing for Pitino—U HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO SUCK SHIT UP!! And Derek came from a very very rough background here in Louisville. He is a Louisville native like myself, and I know about the background Derek came from, and maybe some people don’t. But bball was all he had at the time. But unlike some people on here who aren’t really UK fans and they just wanna get on here to throw shade at and insult other UK fans, I am here as a lifelong diehard UK Blueblood to the day I die, and I,unlike some of these other morons, know the true history of this program, and I happen to have some family members and other lifelong friends who worked with the UK BBALL program for many years, and were insiders and witnesses to alot of things that have happened. So I take exception to those who have nothing better to do than to get on here and insult people. This is a UK fan site and if u don’t like what we say and dont like us, then go somewhere else! We don’t ask u to get on here or ask for your presence and opinion. Go somewhere else–go to ARK’s fan sites. If u love just watching kids and coaches who are only worried about making their future dreams come true, and just use the college facilities as their means to that end, then by all means blow off to somewhere else. If u love KY, if u love this state, if u love still seeing kids from our state receive scholarships to play at KY because u understand and remember the fact that every KY national-championship-winning team has had at least one KY native on the team playing a key role on the team, and u love having Coach Pope because HE IS ONE OF US, and part of our national-championship-winning heritage, then come aboard—-BIG BLUE IS FOR YOU!!!!