1992-1996: Greatest five-year stretch in basketball history.

[kywildcat41035]

If he had just played DA, we win in 97, no doubt about it. Easy on the praise for Pitino. The Cal nut huggers will come out the woodwork!

Those were the real exciting days to be UK fans watching basketball was so very exciting never a dull moment. Every time we went into a game I knew we were going to rip out the opponents hearts! Most fans forget what Pitino did for our program they have long term memory loss or are too young to remember those good old days!

 

[Cowtown Cat]

Those were the real exciting days to be UK fans watching basketball was so very exciting never a dull moment. Every time we went into a game I knew we were going to rip out the opponents hearts! Most fans forget what Pitino did for our program they have long term memory loss or are too young to remember those good old days!

Amen, brother!

 

[nickhorvathsuxazz]

It wasn't the greatest 5 yr. stretch in history, but it was a damn fun time to be a cat fan, that's for certain. Pitino era was good times from start to finish. Regardless of subsequent mistakes...

 

[Cowtown Cat]

Great post and hard to argue. Those were my age 12-16 years. Epic time for the sportm

11-15 for me. Graduated HS in 1999. Man, where’d the good times go?! Started working on the road in 1999 making bank as well. (I wanna make bank, bro. I wanna get ass! Love that movie!) 🤣 Anyway, definitely the good ole days!

 

[Son_Of_Saul]

It wasn't the greatest 5 yr. stretch in history, but it was a damn fun time to be a cat fan, that's for certain. Pitino era was good times from start to finish. Regardless of subsequent mistakes...

Just for sake of conversation, what would you say was the greatest 5 year stretch in basketball history? Once again, I'm not making the case that this was the greatest 5 year stretch in college basketball history, but overall in basketball as a whole.

I'd like to hear your thoughts since you seem to have another era in mind.

 

[SaguaroCat]

***In no particular order.

1. Greatest Collection of talent ever assembled on the 1992 Dream Team, including the last real Swan Song for Bird/Magic.
2. Greatest NBA team in history in the 1996 Chicago Bulls.
3. Greatest college basketball team in history in the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats.
4. Arguably the deepest NBA draft (or second behind the 1984 draft) in 1996 with Kobe, Nash, Iverson, Allen, Walker, Marbury, Camby, Jermaine O'Neal, Abdur-Rahim, Peja, Kittles, etc.
5. Coach K's greatest team in the 1992 Duke Blue Devils.
6. UK, Duke, UNC, and UCLA won titles in that span. Kansas and Indiana both made Final Fours as well. Arkansas' 1994 team was the 5th team to win in that span. All five of those title teams were incredible by any era's standards. Not one dud champion.
7. All of the blue bloods reached at least one Final Four in that span.
8. Bobby Knight's last Final Four.
9. Dean Smith's last championship.
10. Prime level play for Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Hakeem, Robinson, Pippen, Ewing, Drexler, Wilkins, etc.
11. Michael Jordan's best years.
12. Michigan's Fab Five.
13. Arguably the most competitive Final Four in history with 1993 with Pitino's Wildcats, Dean's Tar Heels, Fisher's Fab Five, and Roy's Jayhawks.
14. Arkansas' 40 minutes of hell.
15. College basketball included Shaq, Fab Five, Mashburn, Laettner, Mourning, Ray Allen, Iverson, Grant Hill, Penny Hardaway, etc.
16. Georgetown and John Thompson still had great teams. So did Indiana, Arkansas, UCLA, etc.
17. High school basketball included Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, etc.
18. The last pure college era before the rise of the "straight to NBA" era.
19. Jordan coming out of retirement.
20. Greatest multi-conference simultaneous rivalries of Duke/UNC in the ACC; UConn/G'Town/Syracuse in the Big East; and Arkansas/Kentucky in the SEC.

Hard to argue. Few more.

21. 1992 Kentucky-Duke considered arguably greatest college game played.

22. Fab Five change basketball fashion for a generation.

23. Creation of two teams in Canada.

24. Petrovic and Divac become NBA Stars.

 

[nickhorvathsuxazz]

Just for sake of conversation, what would you say was the greatest 5 year stretch in basketball history? Once again, I'm not making the case that this was the greatest 5 year stretch in college basketball history, but overall in basketball as a whole.

I'd like to hear your thoughts since you seem to have another era in mind.

I actually wasn't taking basketball as a whole, but I still don't agree w/ the 92-96 stretch, because I thought pro basketball sucked in that era...hate the bulls, hate Jordan. Pro ball died w/ the Magic/Bird rivalry. To me, that was the greatest stretch in pro ball...say 81-86. College ball, I'd say UCLA run obliterates our 90's run, but they were cheating their asses off, so there is that in our favor.

 

[RingoLucky]

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I disagree. This team crushed the SEC that year by 20 a game and everybody said the SEC was down so they only got 4 teams in the big dance. All four made it to the sweet 16 and 2 made the final four. Not the best set of future pros ever, the best college basketball team ever.

the most beautiful half of basketball ever played. Walker could have scored a 100 in this game if we would have wanted him to.