Amari Williams had 14 points, eight rebounds and one block against Missouri. (UK Athletics Photo)
Of all the things I thought Mark Pope might be able to do in his first year at Kentucky, this was one that never entered my mind.
I thought maybe he could have a winning season and get his completely new team into the NCAA Tournament. Maybe he could even get a win or two over a bitter rival or a highly ranked Southeastern Conference team.
However, who would have thought this team that is not dominated by five-star recruits and future NBA players could do what only Duke in 1978-79 and Indiana in 1992-93 did?
With the win over No. 15 Missouri Saturday, Kentucky tied the record for most wins ever against Associated Press top 15 teams with eight — and likely will get a chance in the SEC Tournament to break the record.
To make the number even more impressive, only three of the wins came in Rupp Arena — 106-100 over No. 6 Florida, 81-60 over No. 11 Texas A&M, and 75-65 over No. 5 Tennessee.
Kentucky beat No. 6 Duke 77-72 and No. 7 Gonzaga 90-89 on neutral courts — even though the Gonzaga win was in Seattle. It also won 95-90 at No. 14 Mississippi State and 78-73 at No. 8 Tennessee before getting the win Saturday at Missouri.
“If you can come to Kentucky and you can do something all-time at the University of Kentucky as a team — like, all-time at Kentucky? When you think about all the people that roll through here,” Pope said after Saturday’s win.
“For them, for this group to hold that record is just insane. And then in the history of the game of college basketball, for them to be tied? It’s great for these guys, man. It’s a special group.”
It has been a special year for fans to enjoy. Kentucky has scored 90 or more points 12 times this year and is 11-1 with the only loss to Alabama.
The Cats were 11-for-20 from 3-point range at Missouri — the fifth time the Cats have been over 50 percent from 3 in a game, and UK is 5-0 in those games. Kentucky is also now 12-1 when making at least 11 3-pointers, a stat to watch going into postseason play.
14 Responses
Credit Coach Mark Pope, his select group of Assistant coaches & the players who bought in to the TEAM 1st concept to once again lift UK to the National stage!!!
How refreshing not to be sidelined by the draft 1st program which de-railed legendary UK BB for most of the prior years when UK could not even get past the 1st weekend or even the 1st game of the Big Dance.
Congrats to the coach, staff and the vast majority of players who stayed the course and did not get selfish trying to he the hero.
UK is Back!!!
Nice to be noticed Again, since so many deserted the ship n followed CALIPARI
Incredible!! For this achievement they’ll definitely need a nickname
Yes! I agree.
Setting a RECORD in the
1st SEASON FIRST at UK for…
• EVERY COACH
• EVERY PLAYER
Records changed at UK with the previous HC…
• UK ended National reign as program with most consecutive games with a made 3-pointer
• UK consecutive losses in 1st game of Big Dance
• UK exiting in 1st weekend of Big Dance
The old system has been FLUSHED away
With a new Sheriff & Deputies in town!
Nice year Little Baron
Yes! It’s been refreshing!
Thanks for excellent coverage & some extra special articles!
I try Little Baron
I saw someone refer to this team as the ReMarkables. I thought that was clever.
I think the 1998 national championship team equaled the record of 8 wins over top 15 teams if you include post season play. It’s my understanding that this team had 8 wins in regular season play.
"The immortal portals "
Either that or remakeables,
To be fair, there are many teams that probably didn’t face a lot of top 15 teams. The SEC is a bear this year and most years there are as many SEC teams being ranked as high as they are this year.
I truly hope the SEC is really as tough as they look, but we won’t know until the NCAA tournament.
I am happy with this team even if they don’t win another game. I hope they do, but this has been a great year.
Coach Pope thus joins Bobby Knight and Bill Foster s the only coaches to lead a team to this achievement. I bet most people figured that Duke’s was under Coach K, but it wasn’t.
Love Kentucky basketball again, this is a special bunch of transfers, that can beat any team in the country, when they play aggressive, like at Missouri. Mark Pope has done a coach of the year, worthy job. Really don’t understand why they shut that down. But he has been awesome.
It has been fun KP
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