UK alum Tom Leach has been the play-by-play “Voice of the Wildcats” for the football Cats for 12 years and nine years for men’s basketball. He is a four-time winner of the Kentucky Sportscaster of the Year award. Tom offers an entertaining and insightful perspective into UK athletics. Column entries will be posted twice per week through April. Read Tom’s full biography
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With a win over Cornell on Thursday, Kentucky will go into a regional final as the favorite to make it to the Final Four. Thirty-five years ago this month, the Wildcats were about as far on the other end of the spectrum as a team could be. They were facing an undefeated juggernaut from Indiana, which had beaten the Cats by 24 points earlier that season. But in one of the most memorable games in the history of this program, Kentucky upset the Hooisers 92-90, on the way to an eventual national runner-up finish.
There’s an interesting parallel between that team and the current edition. The seniors on that team had been part of a freshman class that was ranked as the best in the nation. Freshmen were not eligible at that time, so the so-called “Super Kittens” recorded a perfect 22-0 record. As sophomores, they helped Kentucky reach the regional final, where it lost to Indiana. As juniors, they struggled through a 13-13 season, but the influx of another super rookie class –which by now was eligible to play right away — put Big Blue back among the nation’s upper-tier programs.
Despite their lopsided loss to IU, Kevin Grevey, one of the seniors on that team, said he and his teammates entered the rematch with confidence.
“There was some revenge factor going into the Indiana game after being beaten during the regular season very badly,” Grevey said. “Our confidence grew after that as we beat some very good basketball teams in Notre Dame and North Carolina and then went through our SEC schedule beautifully. Yes, we lost a few games in the SEC, but we won the championship, and at that point we knew we were a much better team than we were in December when we played Indiana.
“We had them scouted and were as big and strong and felt as deep and as talented. It was just that Indiana was undefeated but we were on a roll. Coach (Joe B.) Hall mapped it out for us and told us how we were going to do it and we executed it. We were all in belief that we were going to beat Indiana and get to the NCAA championship. Losing to UCLA (in the finals) was one of the worst losses I have ever had in my career.
“The week before, beating Indiana, was one of the best wins I ever had in my life. I played 10 years in the NBA and was finally able to win a championship, but those two games, winning against Indiana and losing against UCLA in the championship, are two games that I will never forget and pretty much identify that freshman class and our careers.”
On the eve of the title game, legendary UCLA coach John Wooden announced that the game against Kentucky would be his last on the bench. Grevey and company remain convinced that Wooden’s decision had a big impact on the outcome.
“There is no question I feel that way,” Grevey said. “I have read his books and I have even spoken to him personally and I have told him to this day that I don’t think that UCLA would have won that game if he hadn’t retired. But you can’t rewrite history and you have got to get over that stuff. I have although I still can’t watch that game. My kids say ‘Hey, Dad, it is on ESPN Classic and you gotta see this. Man, you are making shots and you guys look good.’ But I say, ‘Yeah, but we lost.’
“And that is the most hurt I have ever been in my life and I can’t watch it and never have. I have seen some highlights but you couldn’t pay me all the money in the world to sit in front of a TV set and watch that UCLA game. It brings back wounds that I can’t deal with anymore.”
But Grevey says he’d love to watch a replay of the Indiana win.
“I would rewatch that in a heartbeat,” Grevey said. “I never had a chance to but I can remember so many of the plays. The guys really came through. Mike Flynn and Jimmy Dan Conner, Larry Johnson, Bob Guyette — it was such a team win and our guard play was just unbelievable. I have never seen those two guys, particularly Jimmy Dan and Mike, play so well at one time in a game that never meant more to us ever. I was defended pretty toughly by Indiana but those guys carried us and it was such a great win and it gives me chills talking about it right this minute.”
Grevey said his freshman class talked often about the great things they wanted to accomplish in their UK careers. Earlier this month, he was at courtside for the SEC Tournament in Nashville working games for Westwood One radio when he saw something in the eyes and body language of this Wildcat team that told him they had that kind of inner drive.
“We were very, very close and still are to this day,” Grevey said. “I can see that with these guys. They are close and are trying to do something special and yes, the expectations were high on us when we came in as the number one freshman team in the country that long ago and it is the same now. Comparisons are being made to Jalen Rose, Chris Weber and the great Michigan teams. There are only a handful of teams that have relied on freshman as Kentucky has and maybe the last would have been Carmelo Anthony and Syracuse.
“It is a different day now, but I think there are similarities in the spirit and desire to do something and achieve. These guys have achieved everything that has been set before them up to now and I don’t see any reason why they can’t continue on.”
