Kentucky Wildcats

Team History

Kentucky has the most NCAA tournament appearances (59), wins (131), games played (184), NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances (45), NCAA Elite Eight appearances (38), total postseason tournament appearances (68), and regular-season conference championships (53). Kentucky has also appeared in 17 NCAA Final Fours (tied for third all-time with UCLA), 12 NCAA Championship games (tied for first all-time with UCLA), and won eight NCAA titles (second only to UCLA’s 11). Continue for more Kentucky Wildcats Stats.

Kentucky also won the National Invitation Tournament in 1946 and 1976, making it the only school in history to win both the NCAA and NIT championships. Kentucky also has the most 20-win seasons, 30-win seasons, and 35-win seasons among all institutions.

The Kentucky basketball program has had numerous prominent and successful players, both on the college and professional levels, throughout its history.

Kentucky holds the record for the most NBA Draft picks), with John Wall, Anthony Davis, and Karl Anthony-Towns picked as the first overall choice. Many successful head coaches have guided the Wildcats, including Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith, and John Calipari.

Championships Won by the Team

Kentucky has a very storied championship pedigree. They have won their conference tournament 45 times with the first coming in 1926 and the last coming in 2020.

They have won their conference postseason tournament 33 times with the last coming in 2018 and the first way back in 1921.

Kentucky has also won eight NCAA titles in their program history. They won their titles in 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958,1978, 1996, 1998, and 2012. They have had five different coaches win NCAA titles which is the most of any school in the country.

Important Team Events

Fans will camp out for tickets to a game at other colleges, but would they camp out for seats to a practice? It’s only in Kentucky. Midnight Madness – then known as “Midnight Special” – was founded by Joe B. Hall in 1982, although the practice of fans camping out for tickets dates back to the Rick Pitino era.

There were no tickets back when the event was hosted at Memorial Coliseum; the UK just opened the doors and let as many fans in as they could.

Fans began to form lines earlier and earlier each time, and in 1995, Wally Clark was eager to be the first person there, so he arrived 17 days early and camped out, beginning a practice that has endured to this day. Even when the event was relocated to Rupp Arena in 2005, spectators queued for days in front of the ticket booth at Memorial Coliseum.

Under John Calipari’s leadership, the event was revitalized, and in 2014, a record 760 tents were erected in “Tent City,” one of many memorable events in an incredible season. Wait and see, maybe they have something big coming up for this March Madness.

Top Players

There have been a ton of great players to come through Kentucky. The one thing Dan Issel couldn’t accomplish was win a national title. The 6’9″ Issel, Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, had twice fallen in the Elite Eight. With the ABA’s Kentucky Colonels and the NBA‘s Denver Nuggets, Issel earned a Hall of Fame plaque as one of the all-time best jump-shooting big men. For his career, he averaged 22.6 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.

Cliff Hagan, a junior backup on Kentucky’s 1951 national champion team, came into his own as a sophomore. In his last two seasons, he averaged 21.6 and 24 points per game, with the latter matching for third-best in school history.

Hagan, who stood 6’4″ and averaged 13.4 rebounds per game for Kentucky, was a center for the Wildcats. Hagan also had a strong NBA career, averaging 20 points or more in four of his five seasons and double-digit rebounds in three of them. Hagan spent most of his Hall of Fame career with the Hawks, where he was a six-time All-Star and one-time NBA champion.

Jamal Mashburn, one of Kentucky’s top all-around players, averaged 21 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game during his All-America senior season. His 1,843 career points rank him sixth on the Wildcats’ all-time scoring list.

Mashburn appeared in two NCAA tournaments, the first of which he was eliminated from due to Christian Laettner’s buzzer-beater in 1992. In the second, Michigan won a thrilling overtime Final Four fight with Chris Webber and the Fab Five. Mashburn was a prolific scorer in the NBA, hitting more than 40% of his three-point attempts twice. He was a valuable starter for the Mavericks, Heat, and Hornets for 11 years, yet he only appeared in one All-Star game.

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