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WORLD’S GREATEST CLASSIC GAME ANALYSIS: KENTUCKY VS. ARKANSAS (1998)

–Seth Stogsdill

After 10 days of having no internet, I’m ready to continue the classic UK game series from 1998. The next one is the annual game against the Arkansas Razorbacks, back when Arkansas vs. Kentucky used to draw huge national ratings. At this point in the season, Kentucky was still ranked in the top ten, but of the eight major title contenders of that season (North Carolina, Duke, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Connecticut, Stanford and Utah), the Big Blue seemed to get the least respect, both from national media types, as well as our own fans, or at least from me. Maybe that had something to do with losing to a Louisville team that ended up losing 20 games that year and was more notorious for playing Troy “Escalade” Jackson from the And1 Tour. Still, Kentucky had just come off of a dominating performance against South Carolina, which I remember because I was allowed to stay up past my bedtime and witness it. They had also won an extremely emotional game at Georgia, in which Saul Smith guarded (and outplayed) his older brother GG, all while Donna Smith wore a half blue, half red shirt. No matter what this team did, they couldn’t shake the label of “a team that lost to Escalade.”

Arkansas was nowhere near the team that played Kentucky every year on Super Bowl Sunday every year in the mid-90s, but they were still pretty good. The cornerstones of their team were three juniors. Derek Hood was the rebounding powerhouse with the body of an NBA power forward. Kareem Reid was the gritty New York point guard (note: Reid was not white, but it is taboo to call a black player “gritty” for whatever reason – that’s a whites-only attribute among sportswriters) with a top 5 all-time ugly shot. Pat Bradley was the ageless shooting guard from Boston whose range began at about midcourt. All three of these guys were freshmen when the Little Rock Nine were admitted into Little Rock Central HS. In fact, during Pat Bradley’s Arkansas tenure, Arkansas actually seceded from the Union along with the other Confederate states. Whenever I talk about players who seemed to play forever, I call it the Pat Bradley effect. He was a Razorback when Bill Clinton was just a governor. Arkansas still employed the 40 Minutes of Hell, but just didn’t have the kind of players that they used to have. From a sold out Rupp Arena, our announcers are Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery, both of whom are the best at their respective position in the world.

Kentucky hadn’t started to press by this point in the season, but they were still able to turn Arkansas over several times using their equally effective halfcourt defense (not very similar to ball-line defense, for those interested). Unfortunately, the 40 Minutes of Hell was working, and turnovers abounded. Kentucky stayed in the lead early in the game because of hot shooting and superior interior presence (yes, I meant for that to rhyme). And there’s another turnover. Wow. If somebody ever put this game on Youtube, they should play the highlights in fast forward and set it to the theme from “Benny Hill.”

Hey, there’s a commercial for “The Edge” pizza from Pizza Hut. Did you ever have one of those? It was terrible. Pizza Hut has only come up with two good ideas since 1998. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what those are. But, I digress…

If you had 5:00 in as the first time an announcer said “Heshimu means ‘strong black warrior’” in your office pool, you have won something. Seriously, this is a sloppy game. Arkansas finally countered a fast Kentucky start with a couple of bombs from Bradley. Reid hit a three with his hideous form to tie the score, then the Hogs took the lead on a fast break. Between the turnovers and the fouls, this game has absolutely no flow, which I suppose should have worked in Kentucky’s favor, but it didn’t. There’s another turnover. Good grief. The fans are getting a little unruly at this point, which makes UK fans the best in the country, because they can tell when a team needs a lift better than any crowd in college basketball. The Cats’ response to this was another turnover.

Another sidenote: Arkansas had a player named Sunday Adebayo on the roster. He played for Arkansas in 1996, transferred to Memphis in 1997 (and played for them), and then played for Arkansas in 1998. How in the world did this work? How did Arkansas and Memphis not end up on probation for this?

Arkansas led 33-30 at the last TV timeout of the half. Another reason why the game has no flow is because Arkansas had a player named Tarik Wallace who shot every time he touched the ball. If you take away the turnovers, the fouls and one trigger happy Razorback, this has actually been a pretty solid, competitive game thus far. Another three by Bradley, and now he can’t miss. The strong black warrior has been the only offense for the Blue these last few minutes. Evans has taken Bradley one on one and scored on consecutive possessions. UK would have tied it going into halftime and possibly taken the lead, but Tony Greene called a TERRIBLE charge on Saul Smith that wiped out a potential and1. The halftime score was 40-38 Arkansas, but I have a feeling that the good guys will bounce back.

When I watch these games over, I still watch them as a fan, even though I know what happens. That’s why I always stop the tape of the Duke game after Sean Woods’ shot. Anyway, Arkansas is just murdering our guys inside, and they’re getting called for nothing.

There’s still no flow, as I just saw turnovers on four consecutive possessions. Why did I pick this game again? Actually, as the second half progresses, the turnovers are more of a result of good defense rather than inept offense. Then, there was one of those trademark UK home game bad luck sequences in which two shots which would have given Big Blue the lead took round trips on the rim, only to fall off, and when Arkansas got the rebound, Reid split a trap for an insane and1. These things happen ten times more frequently at home than they do on the road. One thing is for sure, there’s a reason why Arkansas never beat UK between 1996 and 1999: They had absolutely nothing inside, and Nazr Mohammed has just destroyed every Razorback unfortunate enough to have had to guard him. Also, at about the halfway point in the second half, the press came into effect, but it didn’t work all the time, as Pat Bradley nailed a three from Sheila Bay’s Jewelry. Arkansas switched from the 40 Minutes of Hell to a 2-3 zone, and that proved to be very effective. Wayne Turner began to attack the zone and penetrate, much like he did against Duke in a game that deserves its own shrine. Scott Padgett made a tough and1 on an offensive rebound. Almost all of Kentucky’s scores down the stretch came on second chances. Jeff Sheppard really put the clamps down on Pat Bradley. Padgett took it strong to the rack for a dunk to cut the lead to two (remember when Tubby Smith used to call awesome plays out of timeouts? It used to happen a lot!), and everybody was going crazy. A runner by Turner tied it at 62 with two minutes and change left. Arkansas scored on a cutting layup, but then Evans buried a three from the corner and Tubby Smith is FARRED UP! The Hogs weren’t bothered too much by the s
hot, as Tarik Wallace came back with a bomb to give Arkansas a three-point lead. Mohammed tipped in a Sheppard miss to tie the score, and Reid’s last second shot rolled off, as Kentucky prepared for its first overtime game since the 1997 championship game.

The Cats took over the overtime period, with a strong black warrior carrying the load. Evans had a nice baseline drive for two, immediately followed by an explosive breakaway dunk. Most teams would have been knocked out by that offensive outburst from Evans, but most teams don’t have Pat Bradley. He nailed a crazy contested shot (that always goes in for an opposing team at Rupp), but Evans answered with another driving basket to keep the lead at four. At 78-71, it all seemed over, then Bradley made a three. Padgett made a FT, then Bradley BANKED in a three. A Turner FT made it 80-77, and Arkansas had a chance to win. 24,000 people knew who was going to try and take the shot, except he had just committed his fifth foul. Arkansas was left without a go-to perimeter shooter on the floor, and the tying attempt was way off. Kentucky won the first in a long string of close conference games, 80-77.

I’ve got at least two more regular season games left on my schedule, and then I’ll probably do the last four NCAA Tournament games.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and I’ve got tapes to watch.

We’re taking a break from the early morning monologue today to bring you something a little different. Plus, to be honest with you, there isn’t much to monologue on. Except Matthew Pilgrim, who is supposively a Wildcat now. But I’ll wait for the official release.

So I present to you an analysis of the 1998 Kentucky vs. Indiana game from our friend, Seth Stogsdill. Take the trip down memory lane. It’s a good ride.

WORLD’S GREATEST CLASSIC GAME ANALYSIS

THE BEST OF 1998: KENTUCKY VS. INDIANA

One of the things about 1998 that nobody remembers is how great some of the regular season games were. I’ll admit that as a 12-year-old fan, I didn’t appreciate how good the games were until later when I watched the tapes again. Up until the Tournament win over Duke, I only thought of that group as the team that lost to 20-loss Louisville at home. They were a team that rolled over and died at home against Ole Miss. I know because I was at courtside for that one. They were team that lost to Jason “White Chocolate” Williams all by himself. And for these reasons, I think that the ’98 team is the least appreciated of all of Kentucky’s championship teams, but the games were great, and this was the first in a series of classic from ’98 that I’m going to recap.

Nobody knew much about this Kentucky team. They had lost four key players from the 1997 team, and it was difficult to tell who would emerge as the big scorer or who would be the leader. Kentucky had faced three tests up to the Indiana game. In the Maui Invitational, they were destroyed by #1 Arizona in a national championship rematch. It was ugly from the time the ball was tipped. Then, they got revenge for last year’s opening loss to #16 Clemson in a game approximately 928 people saw. Finally, they stepped up and manhandled #6 Purdue in the “Great Eight,” which desperately needs to be brought back. Come on, ESPN. You get rid of the Great Eight and replace it with the ACC/Big Ten Challenge? That’s just terrible. But for whatever reason, the Cats weren’t getting credit for their wins over ranked teams, as the loss to Arizona hung over everybody’s mind with Indiana looming.

Of course, Indiana was about as mediocre as you can get, as they have been every year since 1993. Bob Knight had started to lose his recruiting mojo, and this was before the Neil Reed choking incident was made public. He put all of his money on Indiana Mr. Basketball and stereotypical, cornfed “Jimmy Chitwood Chosen One” Luke Recker and a handful of junior college transfers. Have you ever heard of Rob Turner, William Gladness or Luke Jimenez? That’s what I thought. The Hoosiers also had the late Jason Collier (an Indiana Mr. Basketball who couldn’t get along with Knight and left IU), Andrae Patterson (one of the biggest blue chip busts of the 90s) and AJ Guyton, who was a 7th year sophomore, well on his way to a 29-year college career. For all I know, he could be on Indiana’s roster right now. Lord knows they need all the help they can get. Indiana wasn’t ranked, but if you’ve followed the UK vs. IU rivalry, you know that doesn’t mean jack, especially in the cavernous RCA Dome. The announcers are the greatness that is Gus Johnson and the cantankerous curmudgeon Billy Packer.

As a kid, when you watch games with grown men, you become schooled in the use of profanity. This game was no exception, especially after Indiana made its first SEVEN (7) shots. It wasn’t as if Kentucky was playing bad defense either. Indiana was just throwing up all kinds of garbage that was going in, and it was frustrating everybody. The offense was not clicking, as the referees were trigger happy with the whistle whenever something even looked like traveling. This is no surprise, because John Clougherty is an historically terrible referee who upon retirement became head of basketball officiating for the ACC and Ed Hightower is one of the worst Big Ten homers to ever put on a striped shirt. Rob Turner led the charge for Indiana, prompting Packer to say, “all this kid knows is scoring.” Kentucky slowly crawled back in the first half thanks to the much-improved game of Nazr Mohammed, who established himself as the best player on the court in no time after abusing Jason Collier. Knight yanked Collier early in the half, and I’m not sure if I ever saw him again as an Indiana Hoosier, but it wasn’t like the other big men from Indiana stood a chance against Mohammed either. Indiana cooled off, and from about the 12:00 mark, it was neck and neck for the rest of the half. Cameron Mills picked up the slack for the struggling Allen Edwards, Scott Padgett and Wayne Turner, knocking down four threes in five possessions and drawing huge admiration from Gus Johnson (“He’s got the hot hand today, Billy!”). Turner hit Edwards on a LONG lob for a huge dunk. Then Jeff Sheppard drove baseline on Jimenez and threw down this monstrosity. The momentum from one of the ten greatest poster jams in UK history carried the Cats to a 46-39 halftime lead.

Indiana started off the second half on fire, just like the first half. Guyton made a pair of threes and the lead was cut to a single point. That’s when we got to see the defense that made the 1998 team so awesome for the very first time. A combination of presses, traps, and just physically wearing out the offense in the halfcourt was unleashed upon the poor Hoosiers, who never saw it coming. Turnover after turnover followed. Rob Turner felt the brunt of the assault from his namesake. Wayne forced him into multiple turnovers in the second half, and he was absolutely BLOWN UP by the end of the game. The turnovers allowed Kentucky to jump out to its biggest lead at 60-49 with about 10 minutes to go. To their credit, Indiana kept fighting, even though they were outmatched and gassed. Grizzled veteran AJ Guyton took over the game, nailing jumpers and free throws, chipping away at what most people near my TV thought was an unshakeable lead. Mu Evans nailed Padgett with an accidental elbow (Fun fact: “Heshimu” means “Strong black warrior” in Swahili), taking a good shooter away from Kentucky down the stretch and allowing Indiana to get key defensive stops. Guyton continued to bomb away, and the lead was down to 74-72. Indiana had chances to take the lead when it was 74-72, but they could never get the shots to go in. Wayne Turner made one of two free throws, giving the Hoosiers one more crack at tying the score, but the prayer by Guyton missed at the buzzer, and Kentucky walked away with a hard fought rivalry win, 75-72. What made this game special for me was that Kentucky was able to get defensive stops every time Indiana had a chance to tie or take the lead. During the Rick Pitino years, 1997 in particular, Kentucky didn’t have too many close games, but when they did, they almost always seemed to lose. This 1998 team did just the opposite, and the Indiana game was the first and string of them throughout that whole season.

This is just a hunch, but I don’t think that the upcoming game against Indiana will be a classic like this one was. I think the cast of “Hoosiers,” even in their 40s today, has more collective basketball talent tha
n this year’s Indiana roster. But that’s okay, considering the holier-than-thou attitude of Indiana fans who have shoved the program’s cleanliness down my throat for 22 years. Bring on the slaughter.

I’ll be back in a couple days with a couple recruiting opinions, but until then, I’m Seth Stogsdill, and I have some tapes to watch.

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.