Sean Woods Remains Thankful For Unforgettable Time At UK

Even thought the game itself was not a win, Sean Woods hit what I consider to be the greatest individual SHOT in the history of KY BBALL. Yes, there have been other game-winners and buzzer-beaters, and Tayshaun's 45-footer against UNC will always rank high for sure, but Woods' shot over Laettner in 1992 stands at a different level in a different place. People forget that THAT WAS THE ACTUAL ' "SHOT" '. And that definitely would have been THE SHOT that would have been replaced on TV for a lifetime had KY been able to escape with the win. Its because of what that shot represented for KY and for the state, and because of what it would have meant for KY in the event of a win. That could have been the greatest story in the history of college bball, not just KY, had KY turned their storybook run at that time into the Final Four. From "KENTUCKY'S SHAME" in 1988 to the Final Four in 1992. 2.1 seconds. The single most excruciating and most painful 2.1 seconds of my lifetime. And it was more like 21 seconds in real time because those 2.1 seconds truly played out in slow-motion. I remember our emotional elation during the DUKE timeout after the shot, and the way we felt–I never felt more elation, more euphoric, or more PRIDE over KY bball in my life than I did in that moment. I definitely think that was a turning point for me in my lifelong relationship with KY BBALL. I was just 12 years old, and that was really my first experience with PURE PAIN on that kind of level with KY BBALL in my life up to that point. So that was definitely a turning point. I grew up as a young kid watching the likes of Kenny Walker and Rex Chapman, but that era ended when Eddie Sutton left and all of that entire bad time with KY BBALL passed, and Pitino came and breathed new life into the program, and rescued it, and ushered in a new era with those Unforgettables. For three years, we watched them play together, and then witnessed the arrival of Jamal Mashburn, who then became my next hero and KY BBALL idol, but by 1992 it had been 4 years since KY had played in an SEC Tournament or an NCAA Tournament. I was 8 yrs old the last time that had happened, so my life at age 8 vs age 12, alot of things had changed, and I really never had experienced seeing KY in postseason play where I was old enough to understand what it was all about. So just for me personally, that's part of why that 1992 season is so memorable for me because of the age that i was at at that time, and because of so much time going by for KY not playing in the postseason, me being really too little to understand the meaning of all of it the previous time they WERE eligible to play in the tournaments. It was like we had gone thru 4 long years of waiting for that very moment. Filling out brackets every year with KY not being on it. Watching NCAA games and Final Fours without KY being a participant. It was a whole different feeling in 1992 when they finally WERE eligible to participate. And then it was like also the anxious curiosity of wanting to see what that particular group WOULD DO in the tournament because of never having been there themselves! Each tournament game we watched as if it would be their last, because it easily could have been. We didn't take any games for granted, not back then, times were different, so we were not sure if KY was going to even get by its first round opponent in Old Dominion!! We watched THAT game as if it was the DUKE game. And same for the second round. And the third. ALL OF THEM! And each win was like a miracle, a storybook finish, for a group that wasn't even on anybody's radar–not even when they WERE finally eligible to be in the tourney. Nobody had talked about KY BBALL as a threat in college bball since 1988. Not in the SEC, not in the NCAA–nobody. And thats what made that performance against DUKE so memorable and so incredible–the college bball world had left us for dead back in 1988-89, and just left us there–now here it is 1992, and in the days leading up to the DUKE matchup, the talk was not IF DUKE was going to beat KY, but by how many points. 30? 40? Name your score. That was the talk. So all of a sudden, in 1992, here we come in the East Regional Final, we take out John Calipari and UMASS, then all of a sudden it's like oh shit, where did THESE guys come from? Is it possible they could actually have a shot against DUKE? And the answers were "oh, we have been here, we have been here for these last 3 years working towards this very moment right now, it's just that YOU ALL have not been taking notice!! And yes, we have a GREAT SHOT against DUKE because we are not laying down for them, and not going into that game just saying 'yea u all are probably 40 pts better than us in terms of talent on paper, so just go ahead and take the win, we might as well not even play'–no, no, no, no–no, DUKE, YOU ALL are going to have to play the GAME OF YOUR LIFE in order to beat us!! And it's going to take a PERFECT GAME AND A STOMP ON THE CHEST TO BOOT FROM YOUR SUPERSTAR IN ORDER FOR U ALL TO BE ABLE TO WIN!" And that's what it took. Laettner had to play a perfect game, not miss a shot, and get away with BULLSHIT in order to push DUKE over the hump–WE MADE THE SHOT–Laettner made a wide-open, one-spin, dribble-and-turn, unguarded FREE THROW, Sean Woods made a driving, one-handed, scooping hook BANK SHOT, OFF THE GLASS, OVER LAETTNER, to give KY the lead, and in that moment what alot of KY fans believed was going to be the WIN. But that's a particular moment in my life and in KY history that I will always remember. And that's why it's the greatest shot in KY history. It's because of what that performance against DUKE SIGNIFIED: WE ARE KY, AND WE ARE BACK!!! And they WERE: the very next year, I turned 13 yrs old and saw KY go to the very first Final Four in MY personal lifetime when I was old enough to watch games. And they played what in actuality was the "REAL" championship game against the FAB FIVE of Michigan, and what turned out to be the second-most painful UK loss of my life–two years straight of the most severe pain at the highest level–but 1992 kicked off a run of Pitino never doing worse than the Elite 8 every year he coached at KY and was eligible for the tournament, except for one. No one could have imagined that fateful night in 1992 what all lay ahead for Pitino and the CATS: the greatest single SEC and NCAA Tournament run that I have personally ever witnessed by KY in 1993 in a 7-game stretch that culminated in that Final Four. Pitino had his second-best and second-most talented team at KY behind 1996 in 1993, led by MASH and his ALL-EVERYTHING SEASON. It was MASH with Travis Ford running the show at PG, backed by a seriously deep and talented stable of athletes, shooters, and just really good bball players. That team literally went 15 to 16-deep. It was a completely different-looking team than in so many years, and especially from the previous 4, and it set the stage for everything that was to come for Pitino in the years ahead. That was the first class where the recruiting restrictions from the probation had been lifted for Pitino, AND IT SHOWED!!! Rick's recruiting absolutely exploded that year, and that just continued on for the rest of his time there. It's why he only had one season that he finished shy of the Elite 8. KY was THERE every year–either IN the Final Four or playing to win one or to get there. But in 1993, they absolutely destroyed TN, ARK, and LSU in the SEC Tournament in Rupp Arena, and then blitzed the NCAA opponents by an avg of 31 pts, including teams stacked with future NBA All-Stars and a Heisman Trophy winner. It was the best, most dominant, single tournament run I have ever witnessed–even better than 1996. It was the year that Pitino got to finally fully show what his true style and system would look like with REAL ATHLETES and serious bball talent that was versatile, skilled, and intelligent. It finally came to fruition that year, even though we didn't get that title, but we finally got it in 1996 in my most personal favorite KY win of my life: against UMASS and John Calipari in the Final Four. Then we came within 5 points and an OT away from making it back-to-back championships without our best player and best athlete in 1997. Tied for the second-most painful KY loss of my lifetime, especially because I was in Indianapolis to see it in person. But alas, my pain was redeemed the next season when I witnessed another one of the greatest runs in the tournament in St Petersburg and then in the Final Four in San Antonio: COMEBACK CATS 1998–the revenge against DUKE by erasing a 17-pt deficit with 9 mins to go. Then an absolute epic, bloody OT battle against Stanford coming back from down 10 pts at halftime to win by one point, then erasing a 12-pt halftime deficit against Utah in the final game to win championship #7, and the second in three years of attempts, and Tubby's turn at hoisting HIS championship trophy, and continuing the winning tradition of KY BBALL into the 21st century, and allowing it to where yet another legend could come here and get HIS TURN at a championship in 2012. Take all of those 20 years of KY BBALL history and accomplishments, and what does it all trace back to? The UNFORGETTABLES and the DUKE game in 1992. They set the stage. They did all the hardest of the hard work without ANY of the trophies, the rewards, or the payoffs that they so richly earned and deserved, and that every other athlete and player has racked in in the years since–THANKS TO THEM. Every player and new coach who comes to KY should have to sit for 15 minutes and watch John Pelphrey's postgame press conference from the other night as part of their orientation and initiation to get into the BIG BLUE FAMILY. Here's what this is, here's what it means–if you don't think u can handle that, then just get up and head for the exits. That's the way that it SHOULD BE. And speaking of things that SHOULD BE: How is it that the Unforgettables have never been back together in Rupp Arena since 1992 until the other night? 33 years without coming back and being honored? Who snoozed on that one? The same with Mashburn, the same with Tayshaun Prince–where is HIS jersey hanging from the rafters? The same with Anthony Davis and Darius Miller in 2012. Darius is another of your born-and-bred KY players who won a championship. He deserves to go up. The UK ATHLETICS program has been forgetting its best alumni and its biggest contributing athletes from over the last 30 years as the years have gone by. They need to get THAT rectified. Just like Mark Pope needs to get the KY program rectified and figured out, as well as his own pulse and his own legacy, as it relates to the job itself. And his recruiting. He learned from the best. And you aren't going to EVER hear a better testimonial about what it is like or what it means to be a KY BBALL player as well as being a KY BBALL player WHO IS FROM THE STATE OF KY, and who grows up dreaming a dream that was put the best by Richie Farmer when he said "dreaming a dream that no one doesn't DARE to dream". That sums it up best. And that's exactly why this experience means something DIFFERENT to the players who are born and bred here. That's also why EVERY SINGLE NATL-CHAMP-WINNING UK TEAM HAS HAD AT LEAST ONE KY NATIVE who has either been a starter or who has played an active and/or very important role on the team in contributing to winning the championship. That's why all of those guys deserve to be in the rafters. It was earned–and earned through blood. For those guys, it truly is a spiritual experience that really can't be conveyed or explained the best to anyone, like Pelphrey said. It just comes THROUGH LIVING THE EXPERIENCE YOURSELF, as he said. And also, as he said: "THE CATS ARE GONNA HAVE A GOOD YEAR".

2 Responses

Cats79 says:

November 29, 2025 at 8:19 am

Great story Larry, I remember that bank shot that Woods made against Duke and of course everybody knows the rest. It seems like it was yesterday how time has fly by.
James Milburn IV says:

November 29, 2025 at 10:52 am

Even thought the game itself was not a win, Sean Woods hit what I consider to be the greatest individual SHOT in the history of KY BBALL. Yes, there have been other game-winners and buzzer-beaters, and Tayshaun's 45-footer against UNC will always rank high for sure, but Woods' shot over Laettner in 1992 stands at a different level in a different place. People forget that THAT WAS THE ACTUAL ' "SHOT" '. And that definitely would have been THE SHOT that would have been replaced on TV for a lifetime had KY been able to escape with the win. Its because of what that shot represented for KY and for the state, and because of what it would have meant for KY in the event of a win. That could have been the greatest story in the history of college bball, not just KY, had KY turned their storybook run at that time into the Final Four. From "KENTUCKY'S SHAME" in 1988 to the Final Four in 1992. 2.1 seconds. The single most excruciating and most painful 2.1 seconds of my lifetime. And it was more like 21 seconds in real time because those 2.1 seconds truly played out in slow-motion. I remember our emotional elation during the DUKE timeout after the shot, and the way we felt–I never felt more elation, more euphoric, or more PRIDE over KY bball in my life than I did in that moment. I definitely think that was a turning point for me in my lifelong relationship with KY BBALL. I was just 12 years old, and that was really my first experience with PURE PAIN on that kind of level with KY BBALL in my life up to that point. So that was definitely a turning point. I grew up as a young kid watching the likes of Kenny Walker and Rex Chapman, but that era ended when Eddie Sutton left and all of that entire bad time with KY BBALL passed, and Pitino came and breathed new life into the program, and rescued it, and ushered in a new era with those Unforgettables. For three years, we watched them play together, and then witnessed the arrival of Jamal Mashburn, who then became my next hero and KY BBALL idol, but by 1992 it had been 4 years since KY had played in an SEC Tournament or an NCAA Tournament. I was 8 yrs old the last time that had happened, so my life at age 8 vs age 12, alot of things had changed, and I really never had experienced seeing KY in postseason play where I was old enough to understand what it was all about. So just for me personally, that's part of why that 1992 season is so memorable for me because of the age that i was at at that time, and because of so much time going by for KY not playing in the postseason, me being really too little to understand the meaning of all of it the previous time they WERE eligible to play in the tournaments. It was like we had gone thru 4 long years of waiting for that very moment. Filling out brackets every year with KY not being on it. Watching NCAA games and Final Fours without KY being a participant. It was a whole different feeling in 1992 when they finally WERE eligible to participate. And then it was like also the anxious curiosity of wanting to see what that particular group WOULD DO in the tournament because of never having been there themselves! Each tournament game we watched as if it would be their last, because it easily could have been. We didn't take any games for granted, not back then, times were different, so we were not sure if KY was going to even get by its first round opponent in Old Dominion!! We watched THAT game as if it was the DUKE game. And same for the second round. And the third. ALL OF THEM! And each win was like a miracle, a storybook finish, for a group that wasn't even on anybody's radar–not even when they WERE finally eligible to be in the tourney. Nobody had talked about KY BBALL as a threat in college bball since 1988. Not in the SEC, not in the NCAA–nobody. And thats what made that performance against DUKE so memorable and so incredible–the college bball world had left us for dead back in 1988-89, and just left us there–now here it is 1992, and in the days leading up to the DUKE matchup, the talk was not IF DUKE was going to beat KY, but by how many points. 30? 40? Name your score. That was the talk. So all of a sudden, in 1992, here we come in the East Regional Final, we take out John Calipari and UMASS, then all of a sudden it's like oh shit, where did THESE guys come from? Is it possible they could actually have a shot against DUKE? And the answers were "oh, we have been here, we have been here for these last 3 years working towards this very moment right now, it's just that YOU ALL have not been taking notice!! And yes, we have a GREAT SHOT against DUKE because we are not laying down for them, and not going into that game just saying 'yea u all are probably 40 pts better than us in terms of talent on paper, so just go ahead and take the win, we might as well not even play'–no, no, no, no–no, DUKE, YOU ALL are going to have to play the GAME OF YOUR LIFE in order to beat us!! And it's going to take a PERFECT GAME AND A STOMP ON THE CHEST TO BOOT FROM YOUR SUPERSTAR IN ORDER FOR U ALL TO BE ABLE TO WIN!" And that's what it took. Laettner had to play a perfect game, not miss a shot, and get away with BULLSHIT in order to push DUKE over the hump–WE MADE THE SHOT–Laettner made a wide-open, one-spin, dribble-and-turn, unguarded FREE THROW, Sean Woods made a driving, one-handed, scooping hook BANK SHOT, OFF THE GLASS, OVER LAETTNER, to give KY the lead, and in that moment what alot of KY fans believed was going to be the WIN. But that's a particular moment in my life and in KY history that I will always remember. And that's why it's the greatest shot in KY history. It's because of what that performance against DUKE SIGNIFIED: WE ARE KY, AND WE ARE BACK!!! And they WERE: the very next year, I turned 13 yrs old and saw KY go to the very first Final Four in MY personal lifetime when I was old enough to watch games. And they played what in actuality was the "REAL" championship game against the FAB FIVE of Michigan, and what turned out to be the second-most painful UK loss of my life–two years straight of the most severe pain at the highest level–but 1992 kicked off a run of Pitino never doing worse than the Elite 8 every year he coached at KY and was eligible for the tournament, except for one. No one could have imagined that fateful night in 1992 what all lay ahead for Pitino and the CATS: the greatest single SEC and NCAA Tournament run that I have personally ever witnessed by KY in 1993 in a 7-game stretch that culminated in that Final Four. Pitino had his second-best and second-most talented team at KY behind 1996 in 1993, led by MASH and his ALL-EVERYTHING SEASON. It was MASH with Travis Ford running the show at PG, backed by a seriously deep and talented stable of athletes, shooters, and just really good bball players. That team literally went 15 to 16-deep. It was a completely different-looking team than in so many years, and especially from the previous 4, and it set the stage for everything that was to come for Pitino in the years ahead. That was the first class where the recruiting restrictions from the probation had been lifted for Pitino, AND IT SHOWED!!! Rick's recruiting absolutely exploded that year, and that just continued on for the rest of his time there. It's why he only had one season that he finished shy of the Elite 8. KY was THERE every year–either IN the Final Four or playing to win one or to get there. But in 1993, they absolutely destroyed TN, ARK, and LSU in the SEC Tournament in Rupp Arena, and then blitzed the NCAA opponents by an avg of 31 pts, including teams stacked with future NBA All-Stars and a Heisman Trophy winner. It was the best, most dominant, single tournament run I have ever witnessed–even better than 1996. It was the year that Pitino got to finally fully show what his true style and system would look like with REAL ATHLETES and serious bball talent that was versatile, skilled, and intelligent. It finally came to fruition that year, even though we didn't get that title, but we finally got it in 1996 in my most personal favorite KY win of my life: against UMASS and John Calipari in the Final Four. Then we came within 5 points and an OT away from making it back-to-back championships without our best player and best athlete in 1997. Tied for the second-most painful KY loss of my lifetime, especially because I was in Indianapolis to see it in person. But alas, my pain was redeemed the next season when I witnessed another one of the greatest runs in the tournament in St Petersburg and then in the Final Four in San Antonio: COMEBACK CATS 1998–the revenge against DUKE by erasing a 17-pt deficit with 9 mins to go. Then an absolute epic, bloody OT battle against Stanford coming back from down 10 pts at halftime to win by one point, then erasing a 12-pt halftime deficit against Utah in the final game to win championship #7, and the second in three years of attempts, and Tubby's turn at hoisting HIS championship trophy, and continuing the winning tradition of KY BBALL into the 21st century, and allowing it to where yet another legend could come here and get HIS TURN at a championship in 2012. Take all of those 20 years of KY BBALL history and accomplishments, and what does it all trace back to? The UNFORGETTABLES and the DUKE game in 1992. They set the stage. They did all the hardest of the hard work without ANY of the trophies, the rewards, or the payoffs that they so richly earned and deserved, and that every other athlete and player has racked in in the years since–THANKS TO THEM. Every player and new coach who comes to KY should have to sit for 15 minutes and watch John Pelphrey's postgame press conference from the other night as part of their orientation and initiation to get into the BIG BLUE FAMILY. Here's what this is, here's what it means–if you don't think u can handle that, then just get up and head for the exits. That's the way that it SHOULD BE. And speaking of things that SHOULD BE: How is it that the Unforgettables have never been back together in Rupp Arena since 1992 until the other night? 33 years without coming back and being honored? Who snoozed on that one? The same with Mashburn, the same with Tayshaun Prince–where is HIS jersey hanging from the rafters? The same with Anthony Davis and Darius Miller in 2012. Darius is another of your born-and-bred KY players who won a championship. He deserves to go up. The UK ATHLETICS program has been forgetting its best alumni and its biggest contributing athletes from over the last 30 years as the years have gone by. They need to get THAT rectified. Just like Mark Pope needs to get the KY program rectified and figured out, as well as his own pulse and his own legacy, as it relates to the job itself. And his recruiting. He learned from the best. And you aren't going to EVER hear a better testimonial about what it is like or what it means to be a KY BBALL player as well as being a KY BBALL player WHO IS FROM THE STATE OF KY, and who grows up dreaming a dream that was put the best by Richie Farmer when he said "dreaming a dream that no one doesn't DARE to dream". That sums it up best. And that's exactly why this experience means something DIFFERENT to the players who are born and bred here. That's also why EVERY SINGLE NATL-CHAMP-WINNING UK TEAM HAS HAD AT LEAST ONE KY NATIVE who has either been a starter or who has played an active and/or very important role on the team in contributing to winning the championship. That's why all of those guys deserve to be in the rafters. It was earned–and earned through blood. For those guys, it truly is a spiritual experience that really can't be conveyed or explained the best to anyone, like Pelphrey said. It just comes THROUGH LIVING THE EXPERIENCE YOURSELF, as he said. And also, as he said: "THE CATS ARE GONNA HAVE A GOOD YEAR".