UK Basketball Notes: Sunday, October 30, 2016
Before Kentucky opens its 41st season at historic Rupp Arena on Sunday against Stephen F. Austin, UK will first play a pair of exhibition games against Clarion (tonight) & Asbury (Friday).
This is the second time Clarion (alma mater of John Calipari) comes to Rupp. The first time, Clarion suffered a 117-52 loss. UK is 55-4 all-time in exhibition play, 14-0 under Calipari.
According to the official UK pregame release for the Clarion exhibition game, the projected starters are freshmen Bam Adebayo, De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and Weyen Gabriel along with sophomore Isaiah Briscoe.
Exhibition contests, though, do not go into the record books, so we’ll proceed to some interesting facts, tidbits & notes as UK goes for a record 9th NCAA title as well as a 48th record SEC title.
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Did you know UK & Rupp Arena have led nation in college basketball attendance in 18 of the last 21 seasons (starting in 1995-96)? Only Syracuse finished ahead in 2005, 2014 and 2015.
Of Rupp Arena’s all-time top 10 crowds, Florida was the opponent 4 times, UofL 3 times, and Arkansas, LSU and North Carolina one each. Largest crowd in Rupp history? On Jan. 2, 2010, when UK beat Louisville 71-62 in front of an audience of 24,479.
UK’s highest scoring game in Rupp history? UK’s 127-80 victory over Dale Brown & LSU on March 4, 1995. The highest scoring game in a loss by UK in Rupp history? Louisiana Lafayette beat Rick Pitino & UK 116-113 in overtime during Pitino’s first year (Dec. 23, 1989).
Individual records held at Rupp by Wildcats include:
Most points: 40 – Derrick Miller vs Vanderbilt
Most FGM: 15 – Patrick Patterson & Derrick Miller
Most 3-Pointers Made: 9 – Tony Delk
Most Made Free Throws: 18 – Dwight Anderson
Most Rebounds: 20 – Chris Mills & Jared Prickett
Most Assists: 16 – John Wall
Most Blocked Shots: 9 – Willie Cauley-Stein
Most Steals: 8 – Rajon Rondo
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In the USA Today Coaches’ Preseason Poll, Duke is ranked No. 1, followed by Kansas at No.2, Villanova at No. 3, then Kentucky at No. 4 and Oregon at No. 5. Rounding out the Top Ten are North Carolina, Virginia, Xavier, Michigan State, and Wisconsin.
Remainder of the Top 25 are: Arizona, Indiana, Gonzaga, Louisville, Purdue, UConn, Syracuse, West Virginia, Saint Mary’s, UCLA, Maryland, Texas, Creighton, Rhode Island and Cincinnati.
Kentucky is the lone SEC school in the Top 25. Top 25 opponents for UK in this year’s regular season schedule are: Kansas, Michigan State, Louisville and UCLA.
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Freshmen Fox and Adebayo have been named to the preseason All-SEC first team while Briscoe and Monk were selected to the All-SEC second team.
Adebayo, Fox and Monk were all selected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame preseason watch lists. Fox is a candidate for the Bob Cousy Award (top point guard) and Monk is on the Jerry West list for top shooting guard.
Adebayo is also one of 20 who has been nominated for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, honoring the top center.
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If you haven’t noticed, Kentucky is currently on a current 37-game home winning streak, dating back to 2013-14.
UK has won 202 of its last 229 home games, including a 54-game winning streak to begin the John Calipari era back in 2009. UK is 546-64 (.895) in Rupp Arena.
Under Calipari, the Wildcats have gone undefeated at Rupp Arena in five of seven seasons since his arrival. UK enjoyed a new program record 19 wins in 2014-15.
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In UK’s storied history, the Cats have lost only twice at home when ranked No. 1 by The Associated Press, and lost only once in Rupp. Both losses were by a single point.
Kentucky is 51-1 all-time as the AP No. 1 team in Rupp since its opening in 1976. Auburn, thanks to John Caylor’s 3-point bomb, pulled the shocking 53-52 upset at Rupp on Jan. 9, 1988.
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Due to ridiculous NCAA orders, media guides today are anything but facts of a program’s history. Certainly, games that are often vacated and/or forfeited should be noted and pointed out. But they should still be listed for historical purposes for the players who participated in the games.
Take UK for instance. Several games are no longer listed in the yearly game-by-game records listing. Here’s the wording from UK media guide addressing these issues:
“As part of sanctions imposed upon the UK basketball program in 1989, the NCAA ordered Kentucky to erase from the record three NCAA Tournament games from 1987-88 season. Kentucky’s 99-84 win over Southern, a 90-81 win over Maryland and an 80-74 loss to Villanova have been deleted from the records, thus changing the 1987-88 season record from 27-6 to 25-5.”
Then a second paragraph:
“The presidents of the Southeastern Conference institutions voted to strip Kentucky of the 1987-88 SEC regular season and SEC Tournament championships. Kentucky was not forced to forfeit any of those regular season or tournament games.”
Pre-game will never be the same…