In an effort to bring you new and improved content, we’ve reached out to some of our favorite blogs to bring you their favorite/most prominent UK moments. Today’s guest blogger is Razorback Expats, two guys who went to Arkansas and now don’t. Simple concept right? The floor is theirs.

Hi. My name is John and, along with my co-conspirator Stephen, I write a blog called Razorback Expats. When Kenny invited us to pen a few words about the Arkansas-Kentucky topic of our choosing, one subject jumped immediately to mind…a subject so epic and important everything else paled in its mighty shadow: Gimel Martinez’s mustache.

After further reflection, though, I figured I should just write about basketball…particularly those “glory years” back in the early- and mid-90s when the Hogs and Cats were constantly battling supremacy of not just the SEC, but college hoops in general. Good times. As fate would have it, Stephen and I went to college together from 1991-95 (thus confounding the experts who expected us to leave school early for the NBA) so we had ample opportunity to obsessively study the sports landscape.

During that time there was no bigger game than the annual battle against Kentucky. The rivalry got off to a great start for us in 1992, when the Hogs confidently marched into Rupp and administered a fairly brutal butt-kicking that opened more than a few eyes around the conference. This SEC stuff would be easy, we naively thought at the time..

Of course, we couldn’t have been more wrong, as that next year’s Kentucky team was genuinely fearsome. The Hogs were in a bit of a rebuilding phase and, although we managed to eke out an upset win in Fayetteville, you guys were solidly avenged in the SEC tournament. I recall the Cats were on kind of a scary roll at the end of that season…seemingly starting every game with a 25-2 run or something like that. It’s a testament to how strong college basketball was at the time that UNC and Michigan made to the NCAA Finals instead of UK.

Anyway, an odd mini-trend of Razorback regular season victories followed by Wildcat tournament triumphs was in place…felt very much like two heavyweights trading punches. That next year, 1993-94, was our national championship year and featured another Hog victory at Rupp. This one was much closer, and Stephen and I received several warnings from our RA to keep the noise down…apparently our borderline insane whooping and hollering was not enjoyable to our extremely uncool dorm neighbors.

I should note at this point that, although Kentucky was our absolute favorite opponent to beat back in those days, Stephen and I maintained a certain degree of reason and rationality toward the Wildcats (uncommon emotions in the world of SEC sports). For example, aside from certain loathsome players (Travis Ford and Roderick Rhodes come to mind), we generally had a grudging respect for the UK guys (Tony Delk and Jamal Mashburn come to mind)…except when they were killing us, of course. We’d even say a few nice things about Rick Pitino if you caught us in the right mood (usually after the Hogs had won).

Continuing our trip down memory lane, the 94-95 games featured one of my all-time favorite Hog victories and all-time most crushing losses. Stephen and I were fortunate enough to attend the regular-season game on Super Bowl Sunday up in Fayetteville, and it was truly an epic back-and-forth battle of two great teams at the height of their powers. It ended, of course, with a classic Scotty Thurman game-winner. Fantastic stuff.

When the Hogs and Cats met in the SEC tournament finals that year it definitely seemed like our year to finally win it and establish our rightful place atop the conference, thus making the events that followed all the more painful. I’ve long since blocked out the specific memories of how we managed to lose a big lead in the final minute of regulation, get another big lead in OT and then manage to choke again in the final minute, but I know I felt sick at my stomach for about a week after that one.

Of course, after that year the natural order of the universe re-asserted itself and Kentucky has been on top ever since (side note: your 1995-96 team was about as good as college bball gets). But, it was fun while it lasted…and I’m confident that John Pelphrey has the Hogs going in a direction that will make the UA-UK rivalry a meaningful one again soon (until he bolts for Lexington the next time that job becomes available, that is….but that’s a topic for another post).

What If. It’s the favorite question of many sports fans and one that we at UK Wildcat Country bounce around a lot. The latest question we bounced around was: if we had to draft a 13-man roster full of former UK players, who would we pick and where? Well, we decided to make that a reality and this morning give you part 1 of a a two part draft between Kenny Colston and Seth Stogsdill. Part 1 shows the first 7 selections. Part 2 will round out the 13-man rosters. You can find part 2 this afternoon.

Kenny Colston has the first pick.

Kenny:In building any team you need the total package. Someone who can score, play defense, rebound. A real team player. So it makes perfect sense to pick the guy who still owns the career records for points and rebounds in a career. Well, he pretty much still owns all the scoring records. He may not have won a title, but I can make him into a winner. That’s why I pick:

Dan Issel, PF-C.

You probably knew that was coming, so let’s see who you counter with, Mr. Basketball guy.

Seth:A shock with the first pick. I can’t blame you. After all, when Issel retired from the NBA, he was the 4th leading scorer in the league’s history if you throw in his numbers from the ABA. That’s unbelievable.

Well, to do what Issel did in 3 seasons was incredible, but my pick could have surpassed the scoring record had he stayed his senior year. The best big man crossover ever, I have no choice but to pick the best UK player of my lifetime.

Jamal Mashburn (PF)

Kenny:Believe it or not, I actualy considered Monster Mash over Issel. But hey, you have to go with the man at the top right? So while the battle on the boards is looking epic right now, I’m thinking of today’s game with this next pick.My team might look a like a bunch of hybrid positions, but you need that. And with Issel scoring all the points, I need a lockdown defender. A guy who will shut down your greatest player and then kill you offensively. And my pick will shut down anyone you throw at me. Guard, forward or center. Why? Because that’s what he does.

My pick: Tayshaun Prince G-F.

Seth:Actually, I’m glad you went with Tayshaun. Tayshaun Prince at the peak of his game would make Mashburn work hard for every point, but Mash would still get those points, especially on the receiving end of assists from this guy. No offense to Tayshaun Prince, but once you get the big man, you need a playmaker. And as I said when I did my version of the CBS Championship Bracket, if you’re looking through the directory of former UK players, there’s really only one name you can have as your top point guard.

My pick: Ralph Beard (PG)

Kenny:You have the point guard position all wrong. All wrong. Don’t get me wrong, Ralph Beard is a great player, but if you wanted to highlight Mashburn, Beard isn’t your guy. Defense wins championships my friend. I have two scorers and one lockdown defender in the post. Now, I get my lockdown guy on the perimeter. Beard is a good, but at 5′10, he’s a little small. My point guard has a good four inches height wise, long arms, long fingers. Steal machine. The pressure he would put on Beard would frustrate the man. And while he only played two years, eveyone knew his greatness. He’s a world champion! And ask Kevin Garnett how much he likes to get fed from my pick. My pick drives the line and dishes for easy dunks. Issel will love this man, Mashburn will hate him. The point guard of the future, the point guard that will give you fits.

My pick: Rajon Rondo. Guard.

Seth:Rondo is a good pick, definitely one of the first guys I would have chosen for the bench (after Brandon Stockton, of course).

Here’s the thing: Defense does win championships, but that really applies more to the NBA than college ball. The magic number for a college national champion is 78 ppg. The only championship team of the last 20 or so years that didn’t average at least 78 ppg was Michigan State in 2000. With all of that in mind, I’m glad that this guy is on the board, because he can fill it up. He also has longer arms than Rajon Rondo, if that were possible. I’m putting him on this roster because he can D it up and, as his nickname suggests, get buckets.

My pick: 00, Tony Delk (SG)

Kenny:That’s the thing, if you don’t reach 78 ppg, you won’t win. My defensive players aren’t just the pure defender type. Rondo drives to score, or dish when the lane collaspes. Prince hits threes and has post movies. Issel is the leader scorer in all of Kentucky history. I’m at no loss for scorers, I just want to make it tough on your scorers.

I knew picking Rondo so quickly might hurt and I had Delk pegged, but he’s replacable. I have my assist man, my swing man, my low post scorer. Now, I’m hitting you from the outside. You may have the all-time 3 point FG career leader, but I’m not letting that go without a fight. My shooting guard can hit it from downtown… or pretty much anywhere on the court. You ask for scorers and I deliver.

My pick: Keith Bogans. SG.

Seth:Crap. I wanted Bogans really bad as a sixth man, just like he is with the Magic. He’s definitely the most underrated and unappreciated UK player ever in my book.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I need a 3 and a 5 to complete my team, and this might be cheating, but I don’t care. He played small forward one year, and that team went to the Final Four. This guy also wins bonus points with me because he played for the New York Knicks, and could probably start for them now (no joke) if he weren’t too busy being a model (no joke either). This guy was more of a 4 than a 3, but I don’t care. He was long, athletic and a great player.

My pick: Kenny “Sky” Walker (F)

Kenny:You’re a lucky man Seth Stogsdill. If you hadn’t “cheated” a bit and taken Sky Walker, you would have been toast. You see, I’m just looking for one last forward/center type guy, depending on if I want to slide my man Issel to a pure 5 or a more likely 4 spot. If you had passed on Kenny Walker, I would have snatched him up in a heartbeat.

The choice between taking a center and going small with another four was tough. But I made my decision. I’m taking a center. And I’m reaching down deep for this one. Issel is my scorer inside, but this guy can clean the boards and wasn’t that bad himself. And I just am not sold on any recent big man, since most of them left early and then bombed out.

My Pick: Rick Robey

Seth:You’ve forced my hand by selecting a frontcourt of Issel, Prince and Robey. I was going to go with Alex Groza at center, but he’s 6′7″ and might get lost amongst the trees. That means there are two logical choices left. I could go with Bill Spivey, since he was an absolute giant back when he played at 7′1″ (equivalent to 10 feet in the early 50s), but I’m going to go with a more recent pick. Keep in mind that we don’t take injuries into account, because this man’s legs were made of balsa wood. Still, when he was healthy, he was very deserving of his draft pick.

My pick: Sam Bowie (C)

Kenny:That’s how I roll Seth. You aren’t going to be able to get into the type of game you want to play. No, you’re playing my game. Bowie is a good pick, and injuries won’t factor in.. but if we’re playing a real game here, I think my frontcourt obviously has an advantage. And in picking my sixth man, I’m not letting up that advantage. Every team need a trash man. And that’s not an insult to my p
ic
k, because he’s gritty. Undersized for what he constantly plays, he can fight with the tallest and the toughest. He’s a no brainer for my bench.

My pick: Chuck Hayes F

My starting five:
PG Rondo
SG Bogans
SF Prince
PF Issel
C Robey

Seth:Okay then, it’s bench time. Points. Points. Points. Nothing wrong with points, and that’s what you need your bench guys to do. Or at least some of them. I get eight more pick, and I can’t believe that we’ve gone 10 total picks without a mention of this guy. It might be a case of getting the best guy left, but he’s probably the best guy left, so I don’t care.

My pick: Jack Givens (SF)

R. Beard*
T. Delk*
K. Walker*
J. Mashburn*
S. Bowie*
J. Givens

Kenny:It was a tough call between Givens and Hayes for me. I had The Goose pegged until the last minute, figuring I can always get scorers. May be a costly mistake, but I believe I have the starting five edge and had plenty of scorers.

But I don’t want to stop bombing the minute Bogans needs a breather. That why my next pick is logical.

My Pick: Travis Ford.

My team:
Issel*
Prince*
Rondo*
Bogans*
Robey*
Hayes
Ford

Seth:I’ve been watching some 1993 tapes recently. Travis Ford was almost automatic from three during the postseason that year. I guess I had better go with perimeter defense, which can mean only one guy. Remember Chris Thomas? He played at Notre Dame 4-5 years ago, and was one of the HS PGs in his class. He was also exceptionally overrated, like almost every Indiana kid who plays at an Indiana school. Chris Thomas had his career singlehandedly ruined in 2003 after an ill-fated trip to Rupp. One man was responsible.

My pick: Cliff Hawkins

My Team:
Mashburn*
Beard*
Delk*
Walker*
Bowie*
Givens
Hawkins

Those are the first 14 picks (seven each)of our draft. Check back this afternoon to see who rounds out the rosters.

My MS Word might explode on this one because I insist on using the term “UMASS!!!” every time when referring to the Massachusetts Minutemen. This was Kentucky’s opponent on that night, and it was the last game the Unforgettables ever won. Kentucky had played UMASS!!! earlier in the season in Lexington, and they won by 21 points. Since the A-10 doesn’t get any TV coverage, nobody knew that UMASS!!! had only lost twice since then. In fact, of the 16 teams remaining in the tournament, UMASS!!! was the only team besides Duke that had 30 wins. They were pretty good. Because UMASS!!! is not Memphis, it was tough to look at the players John Calipari had on this 1992 roster and assume that he was a shady recruiter. This was an extremely talented team with players you’ve never heard of. Jim McCoy was the school’s all-time leading scorer (and I think he still is), which is impressive when you consider that Dr. J went to UMASS!!! Derek Kellogg and Tony Barbee were sharpshooters who later became Calipari assistants. Lou Roe was the freshman sixth man who would later transform into an absolute beast. Harper Williams was the undersized center who played well against everybody but Kentucky. Will Herndon was the 6’3” power forward who was built like a tank. Nobody expected UMASS!!! to beat Syracuse in the second round, even though the Minutemen were the higher seed. I’m glad UMASS!!! won because I’m not sure we could have beaten Syracuse. They were big. Everybody knew that Duke was going to crush Seton Hall, and it was expected that the winner of this game would meet the same fate. From the Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, our announcers are Verne Lundquist and Len Elmore.

Kentucky got off to as hot a start as you’ll ever see in a basketball game, at least if you’ve never seen the 1993 SEC Tournament. Instead of launching threes like they were accustomed to doing, they took it inside and scored at will. If you believe the announcers (and I like Verne and Len, so I do believe them), Calipari said before the game that he knew Kentucky would try to pound it inside instead of jacking. If that’s the case, then he was just powerless against it. The Cats opened things up by hitting their first eight shots, and just like that, UMASS!!! was looking at a 22-11 deficit. The man behind the run was Jamal Mashburn, looking like the best player in the country. Like all of the postseason games in 1992, everybody got involved. All four seniors made their shots. Dale Brown locked down anybody who tried to run the offense for the Minutemen. A 13-16 shooting start made it 32-15 Kentucky, and it made me wonder how in the world UMASS!!! beat Syracuse. A three by John Pelphrey made it 35-16, and Kentucky was looking like a team that could challenge Duke. CBS cut from this game to show Florida State vs. Indiana, just adding fuel to my hatred of Indiana. Brown drove to the rack and missed, but my boy Andre Riddick was there to follow with a Gorilla Dunk, and it was 44-24. But then, something strange happened.

Rick Pitino put a really bad offensive lineup on the floor with five minutes to go in the half. Of the five guys on the court, only Mashburn was a scoring threat. UMASS!!! took advantage of this opportunity and clawed back into the game with a fury. I’m convinced that Pitino felt sorry for UMASS!!! and Calipari because he went to UMASS!!! and was friends with Calipari, so he just wanted to throw Calipari a bone. After some free throws, a Barbee three made it a 13-point lead, but Kentucky never could put the right combination of guys on the floor for the rest of the half. At the final TV timeout, it was 44-33. Will Herndon went way up on the backdoor lob, and now the crowd is going nuts for UMASS!!! Even Dr. J himself got up for that one. A bucket by McCoy made it 48-39, and I can hear those bandwagon jumping East Coast Duke fans cheering for the Minutemen. After a Kentucky turnover with 1.4 seconds left, UMASS!!! had one last miracle left in them, as McCoy launched from 66 feet and hit nothing but net. If momentum wasn’t with UMASS!!! before, it definitely was now. Kentucky led 50-42, but you wouldn’t know it if you looked at the players’ body language.

Fun fact: On this day in 1992, Mike Tyson was jailed on allegations of rape. I know this because that story got more attention during halftime than basketball. Way to go, CBS. As expected, UMASS!!! took the momentum they had from the McCoy bomb and carried it with them into the 2nd half. McCoy laid it in to cut the lead to four. Had it not been for timely buckets by the seniors, UMASS!!! might have taken the lead and ran with it all the way to the final eight. Farmer took it to the rack for a Clay County finger roll, but UMASS!!! threw over the press to Barbee for a score, plus the foul. He missed the FT, but Williams put it back in and it was back to six. UMASS!!! really turned up the heat on defense to start this second half. I doubt they would be doing this if McCoy hadn’t made that 66-footer. Roe tipped in his own miss because he’s a beast, and it was 60-56. The UMASS!!! defense started forcing some turnovers by Kentucky, which only added to the run. The Minutemen also started becoming beneficiaries of terrible calls, which is another important factor in underdog runs. Just to show how terribly things were going, Brown tried to tip in a UK miss, and the ball got stuck between the rim and the glass. How often do you see that, maybe twice a year? A putback by Herndon made it a two-point game, and things started getting scary.

Kentucky pushed the lead back to eight, but UMASS!!! wasn’t done yet. A quick flurry brought it back to four, then Mashburn contorted his way to the basket for an and1. Hey, Ted Kennedy’s in attendance. Have another, Ted. UMASS!!! answered right back with an extremely long alleyoop to Will Herndon. After a three by Anton Brown, it was down to 70-68. Then, out of nowhere, referee Lenny Wirtz called a technical foul on Calipari, and now I know why ACC fans call that man “Lenny Worst.” This was the year that referees were told to be really anal about coaches stepping beyond the coaches’ box, but in a game of that magnitude, you can’t make that call. Farmer made the free throws, then Feldhaus scored inside, and there went the momentum. UMASS!!! was probably running on fumes by that point anyway because they only went 7-8 deep with the roster and had been facing the best full court press in America for 35 minutes, but this was the final nail in the coffin. Kentucky forced UMASS!!! into some bad turnovers, and Feldhaus finished off the Minutemen with a couple more buckets inside. Kentucky hit every clutch FT down the stretch, and they ended the season of UMASS!!! with an 87-77 victory. Mashburn led all scorers with 30. Pelphrey, Woods and Feldhaus each scored in double figures.

I have one more request to take care of from 2004, and then I’m open to any other requests, so send them if you have them.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, destroying my computer’s spell/grammar check, one “UMASS!!!” at a time.

Now that we’re done with 1998, I’ve started taking requests on Cats’ Pause, and once I finish with those three requests, I’ll take requests from both here and there for this series. The only conditions of the requests are that the game has to be from 1992 at the earliest, and it has to be a Kentucky win. This was a second round NCAA Tournament game against a very dangerous Iowa State team. I don’t know a thing about this Iowa State team, so I’ll just run down the Kentucky season up to that point. This was the Unforgettables’ team, and with Jamal Mashburn making the leap from good player to superstar, it was one of the most explosive offensive teams of the 90s. Because of the lack of quality athletes on the team, opposing teams still had several 30+ FT games against the full court press. They struggled a little in February, but after an eye-opening loss at Florida, Rick Pitino did some last minute tinkering with the starting lineup, and the team hit its stride after the greatest Senior Day ever against Tennessee. Then they romped through a loaded SEC Tournament (only because they didn’t have to play Arkansas), and beat Old Dominion in the first round of the Big Dance. Iowa State was the 10 seed, beating 7 seed Charlotte in round 1. They were 5-9 in their conference, which probably meant that they shouldn’t have gotten in. Johnny Orr was their coach, who won everywhere he went. That’s the extent of my knowledge of Iowa State, in case Harrison Barnes is reading this. From the Centrum (they named the gym after a multivitamin for old people?) in Worcester, MA, our announcers are James Brown and Bill Raftery.

This game was 40 minutes of pure offense. Both teams ran their offenses to perfection. The four seniors in particular played fired up because it was their first Tournament. Richie Farmer busted loose with a fearless transition three early on. In the opening moments, it was clear that Kentucky had a distinct advantage inside against the Cyclones. The only ISU big man of any significance was Czech import Julius Michalik, who had your typical Euro game, and was straight up scared of physical contact. Still, as well as Kentucky shot, Iowa State shot even better, and because of that hot shooting, the Cyclones were able to hang in there. They ran a very effective pattern offense that was more efficient than anything Kentucky had seen in the regular season, even Indiana’s awesome motion offense. Kentucky’s run came about halfway through the first half, and it isn’t a coincidence that it happened with a lineup of Mashburn and the four seniors. The seniors compensated for their lack of athleticism with their amazing basketball IQ. All four of them stepped into passing lanes and picked up steals. With Kentucky leading 29-21, CBS did something terrible and went picture-in-picture to cover the other three games that were going on. I know you people probably don’t care about UTEP vs. Kansas, New Mexico State vs. Louisiana-Lafayette or Michigan vs. East Tennessee State, and I know I don’t care about those games, so why should WKYT?

Iowa State’s guards, Ron Bayless and Justus Thigpen, absolutely carried the Cyclones’ offense throughout the game, combining to score 62 points. However, Kentucky answer their scoring with bombs from John Pelphrey and Deron Feldhaus, who made threes on three straight possessions and the two made seven threes between them. ISU kept trying to break through, but a senior always had an answer, and so the Cyclones could only close within five points at the least. Everybody contributed for the Cats. Gimel Martinez set the tone inside with a couple of sweet post moves. Junior Braddy spelled both guards and played well off the bench. Sean Woods found my favorite player ever, Andre Riddick, inside on a nice look for a Gorilla Dunk, and as he was hanging on the rim, he actually kicked an ISU player in throat. I’m about 50% sure this was an accident. The two teams pretty much went basket for basket the last seven minutes of the half, and Kentucky led 57-49. Both teams were shooting well over 50% from the field, but Kentucky was dealing with some foul trouble, which made a lot of people uneasy because this was the same team that gave up 59 FT attempts against Tennessee.

With John Pelphrey in foul trouble, somebody else had to pick up the slack and help Mashburn with the scoring, because it had become a given that Iowa State was going to score some points in the second half. Somebody else turned out to be everybody else. Farmer spotted up and drilled a three, Clay County style. Woods drove into the lane and hit his trademark line drive shot. A bucket by Howard Eaton cut the lead to three, the closest it had had been in ages. Woods had an exceptional second half, penetrating and driving by his men at will and getting to the rack whenever he wanted. Woods was really the star of the half, racking up points and assists. Woods assisted on a Martinez score inside and a Dale Brown three, and the lead was back to 69-59. Martinez hit Pelphrey on a great high-low feed and it was 75-66. A Woods banker and Pelphrey three extended the lead to 12, but Kentucky just couldn’t shake Iowa State. ISU hacked Mash on an inside move, but he finished it anyway because he’s stronger than a bull. But the Cyclone guards weren’t ready to give it up just yet. Bayless and Thigpen used their superior athleticism to draw fouls and hit shots, and before you knew it, what looked like a comfortable trip to Philadelphia for the next round had turned into a war. With three minutes and change remaining, it was only a 93-90 lead. A terrible out of bounds call led to Rick Pitino furiously removing his Armani coat. Woods hit a clutch 18-footer to bring it back to five. It would get no closer, as Kentucky made every clutch FT down the stretch. The final score was 106-98. Mashburn had 27, Pelphrey 20, Woods 18, Farmer 14 and Feldhaus 11. If somebody wanted to see the very best of the Unforgettables, most people would suggest the Duke game, but not me. I prefer this one. Everybody played well, and the Big Blue won. You can’t ask for anymore than that.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and Andre Riddick practices ninjitsu.