March 20, 1998
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Not even fabled UCLA was a match for Kentucky, aNo. 2 seed playing like it might be the No. 1 team in the country.
Jeff Sheppard’s shooting and the inside muscle of Scott Padgett and NazrMohammed overpowered the depleted Bruins from the start, and the Wildcatsromped 94-68 Friday night in a South regional mismatch of college basketball’stwo most storied teams.
Kentucky (32-4), only the No. 2 seed in the South despite winning its last10 by an average margin of 21 points, will meet top-seeded Duke (32-3), an80-67 winner over Syracuse, in Sunday’s championship game.
It will be a long-awaited rematch of the Blue Devils’ memorable 104-103overtime victory in the 1992 East Regional final, a game often referred to asthe best ever played in college basketball. Kentucky fans certainly haven’tforgotten, jeering Duke throughout the Blue Devils’ two subregional victoriesin Lexington last weekend.
Padgett scored 19 points, Sheppard hit for 16 more from the outside andMohammed had 15 points and seven rebounds as the three badly outplayed UCLA’ssenior trio of J.R. Henderson, Toby Bailey and Kris Johnson, the only remainingplayers from the Bruins’ 1995 title team.
It was a forgettable farewell for a UCLA trio that Kentucky coach TubbySmith called the best in college basketball as they combined for a dismal16-for-50 in their final college game.
Bailey, who had 26 points as a freshman in UCLA’s title game victory overArkansas, missed his first seven shots, was shut out in the first half andmanaged 16 points on 4-for-15 shooting.
Henderson, forced to move from power forward last month after Jelani McCoyquit the team, was 5-of-20 against Kentucky’s deeper, bigger front line and had10 points. Only Johnson, the son of former Bruins star Marques Johnson, playedlike himself, going 7-of-15 and scoring 18 points.
Kentucky has repeatedly opened up early double-digits spreads throughout itswinning streak and the Wildcats did it again, taking advantage of UCLA’s earlytentativeness to surge to leads of 11-2, 20-5 and 26-11. UCLA didn’t break intodouble digits until 8:40 remaining in the first half.
The Bruins (24-9) were hurt by the absence of star freshman point guardBaron Davis, who tore a knee ligament in Sunday’s 85-82 upset of Michigan. UCLArepeatedly failed to handle the trademark fullcourt defense popularized byformer coach Rick Pitino and modified by Smith.
Even when they got ball upcourt, the Bruins were clearly off their game,turning the ball over on walking violations three times in the first half. Andthey were twice beaten in the transition game because they stayed back tocomplain to the officials about supposedly missed calls.
Wayne Turner scored off his own steal to finish off a nine-point run thatmade it 11-2, igniting the estimated 8,000 Kentucky fans wedged into thesellout crowd of 40,589 – the largest ever for an NCAA regional – atstill-unfinished Tropicana Field.
UCLA cut it to 11-5, but Sheppard’s 3-pointer and Myron Anthony’s 15-footerfrom the wing keyed a second nine-point burst in the opening seven minutes thatmade it 20-5, and the rout was on.
The No. 6 seed Bruins, trying for their second trip to the round of eight inas many seasons under coach Steve Lavin, made only one substantial run, closingto 28-21 on Johnson’s 3-pointer from the top of the key.
But that only seemed to regain Kentucky’s attention, and Heshimu Evans andPadgett each made two free throws before another Turner steal and layup boostedthe lead back to a comfortable 15 points.
The Wildcats were so in control after that, their large fan contingent, manyof whom drove 14 hours overnight to a soggy St. Petersburg, broke into cheersonly sporadically during the second half.
