If you’ve read my recent WGCGA posts, I’ve made reference to UK Killers. These are the individuals who dominated against Kentucky no matter the circumstances. The Cats could have won the game by 30 points, but this guy was the best player on the floor. First of all, this list is restricted to 1992 and beyond, as that was when I first started watching college basketball. Therefore, let me first include what I’ve been told is the All-UK-Killer Team from just before my time.

F – Ernie Grunfeld (Tennessee)
F – Bernard King (Tennessee)
C – Leon Douglas (Alabama)
G – Ricky Blanton (LSU)
G – Barry Goheen (Vanderbilt)

All these guys were good players, and three of them (Ernie, Bernie & Douglas) were great. But they were just that much better against Kentucky. The only rule for compiling this list is that the players had to have played against Kentucky more than once, which disqualifies the Crispin Brothers and a few others. With that in mind, here’s my list.

10. Marco Killingsworth (Auburn, 2002-2004, Indiana 2006)

This guy was an absolute beast on an Auburn team that made a surprise run to the sweet 16 in 2003. He was always near the top of his conference in field goal percentage, and when he transferred to Indiana, he was even better as a Hoosier. None of Kentucky’s big men could stop Killingsworth, who was built like a Mack Truck. I’m glad he only got the one year at Indiana.

9. Mario Austin (Mississippi State, 2001-2003)

People called him Super Mario, but they do that with every good athlete named Mario. For me, Stone Cold Mario Austin (see what I did there?) was the toughest Mississippi State Bulldog of the era. He hit one three in his three years with State, against Kentucky in 2002. He was so dominant in that game that I call it “The Mario Austin Game.” Kentucky had good centers during Austin’s years as a Bulldog – Jason Parker and Marquis Estill. Neither could stop Austin when he got the ball.

8. DA Layne (Georgia, 1999-2001)

DA was one of the last Tubby Smith recruits to play for the Bulldogs, and this guy was one of the best shooters the SEC has ever seen. Kentucky played against Layne six times, and in those six games, he had 26 threes. Most of them were not open looks either, which made his range and touch all the more impressive. Why couldn’t Smith recruit a guy who could shoot like DA, but wasn’t out of his mind like Dawg Carruth?

7. Jason Harrison (Ole Miss, 1999-2002)

The media LOVED Jason Harrison because he was 5’5”. That was pretty much it. Also, whenever the Rebels played against UK, Harrison liked to pull up from NBA range and bury threes with a man in his face. This was one of the few players on this list who almost exclusively lit up Kentucky, which places him a bit higher than the first three, all of whom were better overall players.

6. Clarence Ceasar (LSU, 1992-1995)

Man, I couldn’t stand him. He was built like Charles Barkley (the basketball player, not the announcer), but was near the top of his conference in steals all four of his years with the Tigers. Also, he couldn’t throw it in the ocean – except against Kentucky. Plus, Rod Rhodes, an excellent defender, was usually the guy guarding him, but it didn’t matter. He couldn’t miss – ever.

5. Dan Cross (Florida, 1992-1995)

Unlike most of the UK Killers on this list, I loved Dan Cross. He was undersized, but tough as nails. He played a very aggressive style that reminded me a lot of a smaller version of Joe Crawford. He never ceased to dominate UK in all 10 games. And of course, Travis Ford had to guard him in several of those games, and bless Ford’s heart, it just wasn’t meant to be. If the Florida players from their title runs had been as stoic as Cross, I’d have liked them a lot more.

4. Scotty Thurman (Arkansas, 1993-1995)

Nobody hit more clutch shots in SEC history, period. He could single-handedly counter UK’s barrage from three during the classic games between the Wildcats and Razorbacks. I remember one in 1995 on Super Bowl Sunday where he pushed off something awful to get open for the game winner. Scotty was so cool under pressure that I don’t ever remember seeing him sweat during a game. He was also one of those players who sometimes couldn’t be defended.

3. Chris Lofton (Tennessee, 2005-2008)

I thought that Billy Gillispie did a good job of minimizing the contributions of Chris Lofton by having Ramel Bradley stick to him like glue, but Chris still got his points. Of course, I’m putting Lofton at #3 because of his efforts against ball-line defense his first three years. Simply put, he’s the best shooter I’ve ever seen in college basketball, and this is the absolute lowest place where I could put him.

2. BJ McKie (South Carolina, 1996-1999)

BJ McKie is the leading scorer in South Carolina history, and this is the same school where Alex English played. I am convinced that all he had to do to become the highest scoring Gamecock ever was to add up his point totals from the nine times he played Kentucky. Tony Delk and Wayne Turner are two of the best defensive guards of the era for UK, and BJ absolutely destroyed those guys all nine times. I witnessed one 40-minute display of total destruction on Senior Day in 1997 when McKie shot more free throws than the entire UK team did. I hated him.

1. Allan Houston (Tennessee, 1990-1993)

Allan Houston has since redeemed himself in my eyes because of all the great things he did with my beloved New York Knicks. But until he hit that game winner against the Heat in the ’99 Playoffs, Allan Houston was my most hated player ever. He got to shoot dozens of free throws against Kentucky, both at home and on the road, he hit almost everything he threw up, and he orchestrated one of the most devastating regular season losses of my lifetime (the loss in Knoxville in 1993) by cheating. If you don’t remember, he was on the line and had to miss on purpose, but he stepped over the line before the shot hit the rim (can’t do that), enabling Tennessee to get the offensive rebound, the basket and the win. Now that’s a cold-blooded UK killer if there ever was one.

There are so many more to list in honorable mention, but I’m out of room. I guess I can pay special respect to Shan(e) Foster, Tony Harris and Keith Carter.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and I’d love it if you left some names on the comment page.

The views I’m about to express are not necessarily those of anybody else but me, but they ought to be, and as a matter of fact, they probably are. The year was 1997. Tennessee basketball sucked something terrible on the court, but not in recruiting. Kevin “Mad Dog” O’Neill was pulling in some amazing classes for such a bad team that played such a horrific style. Remember how awful it was to watch O’Neill’s Tennessee teams? People have said that Tubby Smith played plow horse basketball, but Kevin O’Neill utilized an offense that wouldn’t attempt a shot until the last second of the shot clock – on every possession. Just to show you how good the 1996 Kentucky team was, they beat Tennessee by 40, which is almost impossible considering the ball control style O’Neill used. Well, O’Neill and Tennessee parted ways after the 1997 season, and the university hired Jerry Green to right the ship using O’Neill’s recruits. Tennessee finished 3rd in the East in 1998, won the division in 1999 and 2000 and went to the Big Dance all three of those years, making the round of 16 in 2000. You know the names: Tony Harris, CJ Black, Vincent Yarbrough, Ron Slay, Jon Higgins, Charles Hathaway and Isiah Victor. Marcus Haislip was a lottery pick. People thought Tennessee was here to stay. They were set for life and would emerge as a permanent power in the SEC, possibly overtaking Kentucky as the class of the conference.

Then Tony Harris injured his ankle in 2001, Tennessee forgot how to play together, they stumbled into the Dance as an 8-seed and lost. Tennessee fired Green because he was a terrible coach, then they hired an equally horrible coach in Buzz Peterson. Four years of basketball purgatory followed, as nether Green nor Peterson’s recruits could get the Vols back on the level where O’Neill’s recruits had them. The highlight of the Peterson era was one of his last actions as coach, the recruitment of Chris Lofton before his final season. Peterson’s final season coincided with an energetic coach named Bruce Pearl taking UW-Milwaukee to a magical sweet 16 run in the 2005 Tournament. Tennessee pounced on Pearl, and now here we are in the present. The point of this history lesson is that we’ve seen this before. Tennessee thought they were going to be on top of the world in the 70s with Ernie & Bernie and Ray Mears rocking the original orange blazer, and they thought they were going to be on top of the world in the late 90s and early 2000 with the Harris/Black/Yarbrough group. What happened each time? The Vols couldn’t maintain their success over a sustained period of time and they came crashing back down to earth. And if I wasn’t so cheap, I’d wager that this will once again happen to Tennessee in the near future. Sorry, UT fans, but I don’t think Bruce Pearl is good enough to stay on top of the SEC much longer.

Shield your eyes, Marian!

Let’s start with defense. You have to find a happy medium on defense. If you stress it too much, you will turn out like the last three UCLA teams that were good enough to get to the Final Four with their defense, but not good enough to win at that level with their offense. If you don’t stress it enough, you’re like this past year’s North Carolina team who shot lights out in the regionals and couldn’t stop Kansas to save their lives in the national semifinals. With Bruce Pearl’s defensive system, it’s feast or famine. Tennessee uses the full court press, which makes some UK fans giddy because it’s the system that was employed when REECHIE played, but there is a huge difference. If Tennessee can’t force a bad offensive possession or a turnover with their press, they most likely won’t force a bad possession against an efficient offense. I reference the game UT played last year against Vanderbilt when they were #1 in the country. Kevin Stallings runs the most efficient offense in the SEC, and every time Tennessee tried to make a run, the Commodores slowed the pace of the game down to make Tennessee play 25-30 seconds of solid halfcourt defense, which they could never do. Vandy had an answer for Tennessee every single time it looked like Tennessee was ready to take the momentum. All those Mason County turncoats who envy Bruce Pearl because of the full court press and it reminds them of what Kentucky used to run in the 90s couldn’t be more wrong in that assessment. Kentucky could play halfcourt defense as well as they pressed. If you need proof, pop in a tape of UK playing – guess who – Tennessee under Kevin O’Neill! My team had to play 35 seconds of solid defense against UT, and they did it every single time, as O’Neill was 0-6 against UK as Tennessee’s coach.

On offense, you have to be balanced to win. You absolutely have to have guys who can hit the three, and Tennessee has had loads of those guys in Pearl’s three years. Chris Lofton is one of the best shooters to ever play college basketball, and I hope he has enough success in Turkey that an NBA team gives him a chance next season. Jajuan “Chuck” Smith was a volume shooter if there ever was one, never gun shy, but generally effective every third or fourth game. Both Lofton and Smith thrived on hitting the impossible shot. I’ve never seen guys hit tough, contested threes at the end of the shot clock as those guys. However, there is a huge drop-off after those two in terms of good shooters. In fact, of the returning players for Tennessee, their best shooter is probably power forward Wayne Chism, but more on him later. Of their 2008 recruits, most are slashers and scorers, but only okay shooters. There definitely isn’t a Chris Lofton in this group, and I don’t even think there is a Jajuan Smith.

So, when the shooters aren’t as good as they were in years’ past, you have to take it inside some, something that has not been a staple of the Tennessee offense since Bruce Pearl arrived. It is going to be even tougher now that Duke Crews was dismissed from the team. Crews was Tennessee’s best interior player, and I don’t count Chism because he’d rather stand out by the top of the key and launch terrible threes. Brian Williams looked good at times and is a pure center in an age where that s a dying position, but he still has a long way to go. Tyler Smith could probably post up, but he’s better served taking it to the rack and providing weak side rebounding. I will readily admit that I do not know as much about Tennessee’s freshmen as I should, but the only one with decent size is Phil Jurick, who I’ve been told is “pretty good.” Still, If the threes aren’t falling, Tennessee is going to look absolutely terrible in their halfcourt offense this season. They weren’t too good in the set offense last season, often relying on Lofton and Chuck Smith to bail them out. I know Tennessee fans will tell me about how they were one of the leaders in the country in assists, and I will grant you that, Tennessee fans. I’m also aware that most of those assists came from turnovers created by the press. That’s where a player like JP Prince can thrive offensively because of his size and court vision. But he’s just not very good in a slower paced game, and neither are the rest of the Tennessee Volunteers. For whatever reason, only Billy Gillispie and Kevin Stallings have been able to figure it out.

In short, all I’m trying to say is that Tennessee’s style of play stands a very good chance of being exposed as nothing but smoke and mirrors without Chris Lofton and Chuck Smith. If Tennessee proves me wrong over the next few years, then by all means, Tennessee fans, please serve me the crow and make me look like a jackass. Still, history shows that teams will come and go in the SEC, but there will be one constant. It wasn’t Tennessee with Ernie & Bernie. It wasn’t Georgia with Dominique Wilkins. It wasn’t LSU at Dale Brown’s peak. It wasn’t Arkansas with 40 minutes of hell. It wasn’t South Carolina w
ith their three-guard lineup. It wasn’t Tennessee with Tony Harris. And it won’t be this Tennessee team either.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and the big orange still sucks.