I think it’s okay to officially say we are in the summer slump. Keeneland ends today, football is over, basketball news is slim and baseball isn’t huge in this part of the woods yet. Oh and the Derby ends next week. How depressing.
The good news is, there are sites like AskMen.com and WhatIfSports.com to give you a basketball fix. The two have teamed up to rank the top ten all-time NCAA tournament champions. You can view the entire list here: http://www.askmen.com/sports/fitness_top_ten_150/166_fitness_list.html
And as you probably guessed, UK was represented quite well. A small disclaimer is that these teams listed are all after the expansion to 64 teams. In order to get the rankings, it played all 24 teams against each other 100 times each and then ranked them by their winning percentage.
Here’s the good news: neither Florida team ranked in the top 10 and Louisville and Indiana are shut out as well. Ah, it feels good to be a Wildcat.
The great news: UK places two teams in the top 10 all-time championship teams. 1998 and 1996 were banner years for the Cats. Here are their blurbs from the article:
Number 8
1997-98 Kentucky Wildcats
1997-98 Kentucky Wildcats
Simulation winning percentage - 59.6%
The first of two UK teams in the top 10 and third consecutive squad to make the championship game, not much was expected of the Wildcats in 1997-98 after Rick Pitino and Ron Mercer left. However, the experienced and very balanced team rallied around new Head Coach Tubby Smith to defeat Keith Van Horn’s Utah Utes and win the title.
Starters: Wayne Turner, Jeff Sheppard, Allen Edwards, Scott Padgett, Nazr Mohammed
Number 2
1995-96 Kentucky Wildcats
1995-96 Kentucky Wildcats
Simulation winning percentage - 80.0%
Rick Pitino’s lone championship team was one of the best of all-time. The Wildcats had incredible length (have you ever seen Tony Delk’s arms?) and incredible depth with 10 players averaging between nine and 27 minutes a game.
Starters: Anthony Epps, Tony Delk, Derek Anderson, Walter McCarty, Antoine Walker
The bad news: The 2000-01 Duke team is No. 1 on the list. And so is the 1992 team, with their blurb saying that UK could have had this spot, if not for The Game. I hate Duke.
Check back in later for more NFL Draft info!
