http://www.secsportsfan.com/top-all-time-sec-basketball-program.html
By almost all statistical measures, the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program must be considered the best in the history of the Southeastern Conference, and by most of those measures it really isn’t even close.
First a little perspective as far as where UK stands nationally. Among all NCAA men’s basketball programs, Kentucky ranks #1 all-time with 1,948 career victories (the University of North Carolina is second, with 1,914 career victories). With an all-time record of 1948-608, Kentucky is also #1 all-time in winning percentage, at .762. This marked success most definitely has carried over into SEC play as well.
The University of Kentucky basketball program has been in existence for 101 years, although among all current SEC programs, it actually only ranks 2nd in longevity, behind Vanderbilt University.
However, over the course of those years, Kentucky has significantly distanced itself from Vanderbilt, and all other SEC programs for that matter, in total number of wins. As of the close of the 2005 season, UK had won 1904 games all-time, nearly 500 more than 2nd place, a tie between the University of Arkansas and the University of Alabama (1409).
When only considering regular season SEC performance, consider this. From 1933 to 2005, UK had won 823 games against only 217 defeats, which amounted to a winning percentage of .791. The next closest teams according to all-time SEC regular season winning percentage are the University of Alabama at .577 (674-495 overall), the University of Arkansas at .559 (123-97 overall), and the University of Tennessee at .555 (598-480 overall).
Another telling indicator of the dominance that UK has had over their SEC rivals has been its head to head record vs. other individual SEC programs. UK has a winning percentage of at least .667 against every other SEC program, in most cases, that winning percentage is comfortably higher. The most one-sided match up is probably UK vs. Ole Miss, in which UK is 91-11 all-time (.892).
Another possible measure of SEC basketball greatness is the number of regular season SEC championships that each program has won. From that same period, 1933-2005, UK won 43 SEC championships. Tied for 2nd, well back at 8 SEC titles, are Tennessee and LSU. Alabama currently stands in 4th on the list with 7.
UK also stands alone at the top when considering total number of SEC Tournaments won. UK has won 25 SEC Tournament Championships. To put that number in some perspective, the remaining SEC teams have won 20 combined. Of those teams, Alabama has the 2nd most SEC Tournament Championships with 6, and Tennessee stands 3rd with 4 SEC Tournament Championships won.
And looking beyond the SEC, to the NCAA Tournament, only reaffirms the idea that UK is in fact the best all-time program in the SEC. UK has won 7 NCAA Championships all-time. The only other SEC program with more than one is the University of Florida, who just won their two in 2006 and 2007. The only other SEC program with an NCAA Championship is the University of Arkansas, who won in 1994.
Monday, June 8, 2009
UK to go for Fourth Bowl in Football
http://www.teamspeedkills.com/2009/6/8/899106/sec-2009-kentucky-goes-for-four
FOURTH IN A SERIES :: The 2008 Kentucky Review
Kentucky is a bit of a black sheep within the conference, given that it's the lone basketball school. Others around the conference have had successful roundball programs from time to time, but UK is far and away a basketball school and no one else really is. Just take A Sea of Blue, SBNation's outstanding Wildcats blog, for instance. Its traffic actually declined slightly at the start of the 2008 football season, but it went supernova when Billy Gillespie got canned. The site's favicon is a basketball, for goodness' sake.
Despite all that, Kentucky has perhaps found a black swan to run its black sheep program. Rich Brooks came out of several years of retirement to coach in Lexington, and after a few dismal years, he's put Kentucky into three straight bowls. The last guy to do that? Some chump named Bryant who went by a nickname that Stephen Colbert would disapprove of.
As I mentioned though in my analysis of Bobby Johnson, just because a guy has done something, it doesn't mean no one else could. Just as I think Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and Mark Richt could get Vandy to a bowl, I think they all could get Kentucky to three straight. Either way, Brooks is the guy who did it, and he deserves a lot of credit given that most had him as a dead man walking prior to the 2006 season.
That said, Kentucky was hardly a convincing bowl team last year. UK won all four non-conference games over an underwhelming lineup (Louisville, MTSU, Western Kentucky, and I-AA's Norfolk State) but managed just two victories within the conference over the dregs of the West (Arkansas and Miss St.). That put the Wildcats officially last in the East, just behind Tennessee and its three SEC wins.
There is plenty of room for improvement to say the least, and the burden for that improvement lies squarely on the person who is the future of the program: offensive coordinator Joker Phillips.
The head coach in waiting presided over an offense that managed just over three touchdowns a game. That's not a disaster, but it's not great either. They got those points, though, on just 299 yards per game, which was good enough for 106th in the nation.
Randall Cobb provided some highlights at quarterback, but that role is now firmly in the hands of Mike Hartline as Cobb was moved to receiver this spring. His improvement is vital to the team's success this season as he's surrounded by some nice pieces in Cobb, Alfonso Smith, and Derrick Locke. If he can't improve his game, which landed him at 100th in the country in pass efficiency, then there will be some grumbles for change by midseason.
The defense should still be good, though losing Jeremy Jarmon hurts. Brooks is a defensive guy and that has paid off on that side of the ball. It wasn't too long ago that "Kentucky defense" was an oxymoron, so credit Brooks with a big turnaround there.
Kentucky has built its recent success on thinking differently, and that continued when it became the first SEC program to name a coach in waiting. That's even moreso the case since, at the moment, Phillips stands to become just the second African-American head coach in conference history. Thinking different hasn't always worked out—the words "Hal" and "Mumme" come to mind—but at least UK has shown a willingness to find its own way.
I don't know if the offense or the schedule will allow Kentucky to make a fourth straight bowl, but that's not overly important. The fact of the matter is that UK is in position to make a fourth straight bowl, something that was inconceivable in its days as a doormat just a half-decade ago.
Calipari Mania will eventually eclipse anything the football team does this fall, and in many ways it already has. The notion of the team being irrelevant though is, as its head coach is wont to say, bulls--t.
FOURTH IN A SERIES :: The 2008 Kentucky Review
Kentucky is a bit of a black sheep within the conference, given that it's the lone basketball school. Others around the conference have had successful roundball programs from time to time, but UK is far and away a basketball school and no one else really is. Just take A Sea of Blue, SBNation's outstanding Wildcats blog, for instance. Its traffic actually declined slightly at the start of the 2008 football season, but it went supernova when Billy Gillespie got canned. The site's favicon is a basketball, for goodness' sake.
Despite all that, Kentucky has perhaps found a black swan to run its black sheep program. Rich Brooks came out of several years of retirement to coach in Lexington, and after a few dismal years, he's put Kentucky into three straight bowls. The last guy to do that? Some chump named Bryant who went by a nickname that Stephen Colbert would disapprove of.
As I mentioned though in my analysis of Bobby Johnson, just because a guy has done something, it doesn't mean no one else could. Just as I think Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and Mark Richt could get Vandy to a bowl, I think they all could get Kentucky to three straight. Either way, Brooks is the guy who did it, and he deserves a lot of credit given that most had him as a dead man walking prior to the 2006 season.
That said, Kentucky was hardly a convincing bowl team last year. UK won all four non-conference games over an underwhelming lineup (Louisville, MTSU, Western Kentucky, and I-AA's Norfolk State) but managed just two victories within the conference over the dregs of the West (Arkansas and Miss St.). That put the Wildcats officially last in the East, just behind Tennessee and its three SEC wins.
There is plenty of room for improvement to say the least, and the burden for that improvement lies squarely on the person who is the future of the program: offensive coordinator Joker Phillips.
The head coach in waiting presided over an offense that managed just over three touchdowns a game. That's not a disaster, but it's not great either. They got those points, though, on just 299 yards per game, which was good enough for 106th in the nation.
Randall Cobb provided some highlights at quarterback, but that role is now firmly in the hands of Mike Hartline as Cobb was moved to receiver this spring. His improvement is vital to the team's success this season as he's surrounded by some nice pieces in Cobb, Alfonso Smith, and Derrick Locke. If he can't improve his game, which landed him at 100th in the country in pass efficiency, then there will be some grumbles for change by midseason.
The defense should still be good, though losing Jeremy Jarmon hurts. Brooks is a defensive guy and that has paid off on that side of the ball. It wasn't too long ago that "Kentucky defense" was an oxymoron, so credit Brooks with a big turnaround there.
Kentucky has built its recent success on thinking differently, and that continued when it became the first SEC program to name a coach in waiting. That's even moreso the case since, at the moment, Phillips stands to become just the second African-American head coach in conference history. Thinking different hasn't always worked out—the words "Hal" and "Mumme" come to mind—but at least UK has shown a willingness to find its own way.
I don't know if the offense or the schedule will allow Kentucky to make a fourth straight bowl, but that's not overly important. The fact of the matter is that UK is in position to make a fourth straight bowl, something that was inconceivable in its days as a doormat just a half-decade ago.
Calipari Mania will eventually eclipse anything the football team does this fall, and in many ways it already has. The notion of the team being irrelevant though is, as its head coach is wont to say, bulls--t.
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