Biggest upset in UK history
- Thread starter EvilMD
- Start date
I agree that it was bad but saying that team was the defending national champs is a bit misleading. They were defending champs simply by the name on the jersey. Plus, we had a major injury to Nerlens that was obviously huge. Overall though, it was still humiliating losing to RMU on national television.
I had forgotten about that Georgia Tech game early in the 1954-55 season. Reading all of the posts, I'd say that game would get my vote for biggest upset.
But the back-to-back first-round NCAA tournament losses were, taken together, awfully bitter pills for me. No. 8 U.K.'s loss to UAB in the first round of the 1981 NCAA tournament was followed the next year by No. 15 U.K.'s loss to Middle Tennessee in the first round of the 1982 NCAA tournament . I'll never forget saying to anyone who would listen, "I guess we just don't have enough material to beat Middle Tennessee."
But the back-to-back first-round NCAA tournament losses were, taken together, awfully bitter pills for me. No. 8 U.K.'s loss to UAB in the first round of the 1981 NCAA tournament was followed the next year by No. 15 U.K.'s loss to Middle Tennessee in the first round of the 1982 NCAA tournament . I'll never forget saying to anyone who would listen, "I guess we just don't have enough material to beat Middle Tennessee."
Agree.
Keep in mind that 82 was very early in expanded NCAA Tourney era. The field had first expanded to 32 in 1975, was at 48 in 82, and would finally hit 64 in 85. The idea of the no-name Cinderella pulling the upset was in its infancy. The idea that Middle Tennessee State could beat a UK team that had spent a big chunk of the year in the top 10 wasn't even really a thought to most UK fans.
In 81 we lost to Vandy in the first round of the SEC (a team we beat 84-48 earlier), then to UAB. In 82 we lost to Alabama in the SEC final at Rupp, then to Middle Tennessee. Then we lost the Dream Game the next year. That was a tough three-year span to be a UK fan.
1884 NCAA final four - Kentucky - 40
Georgetown - 52
Kentucky players
Melvin Turpin
Kenny Walker
Sam Bowie
Jim Masters
Winston Bennett
The worst game a Kentucky team ever played. Kentucky I believe only score 12 to 17 point second half.
Georgetown - 52
Kentucky players
Melvin Turpin
Kenny Walker
Sam Bowie
Jim Masters
Winston Bennett
The worst game a Kentucky team ever played. Kentucky I believe only score 12 to 17 point second half.
Worst upset in UK history was 2007.
Gillispie over Calipari.
Gillispie over Calipari.
When you say biggest upset, you gotta go with UAB: a couple of notes from that game:
"Kentucky's Gerald Fitch missed a 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left and Kelenna Azubuike's tip rolled off the rim just before the final horn.
The Blazers (22-9) advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since 1982 with their second big upset of Kentucky in the NCAA tournament"
We were the overall #1 seed that year. We looked like one of those overhyped Duke teams.
What makes this the worse upset in history is that we'd already been bitten by UAB in '81. That should have been enough to not overlook your opponent.
Also, regular season losses are nowhere near the same pain level as season enders. The G'Town F4 game was a Top 2 most painful, but UAB is the school that has dealt us a couple of crashing losses.
Losses like this reminds me of how teams that are inferior could compete with us when they should not have had a shot at it. Penn State and the Crispin brothers comes to mind.
"Kentucky's Gerald Fitch missed a 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left and Kelenna Azubuike's tip rolled off the rim just before the final horn.
The Blazers (22-9) advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since 1982 with their second big upset of Kentucky in the NCAA tournament"
We were the overall #1 seed that year. We looked like one of those overhyped Duke teams.
What makes this the worse upset in history is that we'd already been bitten by UAB in '81. That should have been enough to not overlook your opponent.
Also, regular season losses are nowhere near the same pain level as season enders. The G'Town F4 game was a Top 2 most painful, but UAB is the school that has dealt us a couple of crashing losses.
Losses like this reminds me of how teams that are inferior could compete with us when they should not have had a shot at it. Penn State and the Crispin brothers comes to mind.
Katman, thanks for the correction. It was such a huge upset because Georgia Tech had just lost to a pipsqueak school in Tennessee on their way to Lexington. I knew it was in the 54-55 season and I think the coach was Whack Hyder and the key player for them was Roger Kaiser from Dale, Indiana, a 6' guard.
Middle Tenn. Many people here may be too young, but that was like Duke losing to 14 seed Mercer. This Mel Turpin team was way better, highly ranked and physically dominant to have lost that game.
The best loss, Robert Morris. I am pretty sure if we had won, and then got to play at home for the next rounds of the NIT, we would have made it to New York. That would have made it extremely difficult to get rid of B.G.
P.S. Sorry we lost to Texas Western, but I don't see how you consider that a huge upset when it is a team who made the finals of the NCAA tourney (talking about Texas Western). Same with Wisconsin. I hate losing to them but again not exactly a big upset, just an upset.
The best loss, Robert Morris. I am pretty sure if we had won, and then got to play at home for the next rounds of the NIT, we would have made it to New York. That would have made it extremely difficult to get rid of B.G.
P.S. Sorry we lost to Texas Western, but I don't see how you consider that a huge upset when it is a team who made the finals of the NCAA tourney (talking about Texas Western). Same with Wisconsin. I hate losing to them but again not exactly a big upset, just an upset.
It was a final four game, honestly a toss up game, your emotions are way over the top if you think that was the biggest upset.
Yeah that game was hard to watch like the Georgetown game but that one wasn't an upset just a poorly played game by us.
Still hard to call a final four championship game the biggest upset, some on here are just riding emotions not reality.
To me,"biggest upset" means most consequential, so it can't be a regular season game, has to be in the tournament. Looking at Jon Scott's list of upsets, the following NCAAT losses happened when UK was ranked Top 5 and the opponent was unranked:
'59 Louisville
'64 Ohio
'65 Ohio State
'86 LSU
'04 UAB
I don't remember the first 3. LSU probably hurt the worst. But in both cases - in '86 because "it's hard to beat a good team 3x, let alone 4" and in '04 because matchup - the loss wasn't shocking.
In '81 UK lost to unranked UAB and was ranked #8; in '01 UK was #9 and lost to unranked USC; in '82 UK was #15 and lost to unranked MTSU.
As others have said, no matter how painful a loss in the Final Four might be, when two top 5 teams are playing, you can't really call it a big upset. So no Wisconsin '15, UNC '77 or '95, Michigan '93, etc.....
It was 53-40, and UK scored 11 points in the 2nd half after leading by 7 at halftime. It was certainly a memorably bad loss, and the how of it went a long way towards pushing Joe B into retirement.
But we're talking about upsets here. Georgetown was a 3 loss 1 seed, ranked ahead of UK in the polls. No matter how upsetting in terms of how it played out, it doesn't qualify as an upset at all.
I'm not sure if he was aware of that, and trying to bring up R. Morris as a shot at Cal, or if he really has no idea what year it is at present or who coached UK what years.
A
anon_013cn8yrfncx2
Guest
MTSU. Texas Western was a bitter, bitter pill but not that much of an upset relative to strengths of teams.
We lost to MTSU before the shot-clock so that would not have been a loss played with today's rules.
IIRC MTSU had a guy shooting about 40% or less from the FT line and they pretty much played stall ball the whole game.
Joe B. should have fouled them into the bonus then fouled this guy repeatedly. But I guess he wasn't believing what
he was seeing either.
The '92 Duke game SHOULD have been the biggest upset pulled by UK
We lost to MTSU before the shot-clock so that would not have been a loss played with today's rules.
IIRC MTSU had a guy shooting about 40% or less from the FT line and they pretty much played stall ball the whole game.
Joe B. should have fouled them into the bonus then fouled this guy repeatedly. But I guess he wasn't believing what
he was seeing either.
The '92 Duke game SHOULD have been the biggest upset pulled by UK
I was born in '91, so I'm going to limit it to upsets in my life because that's all I know about. These are the worst ones in my opinion..
-Marquette '03 (I thought this team was an unstoppable train)
-Gardner Webb (Like someone else said, we found out later BCG was a drunk fool)
-UAB '04
-Marquette '03 (I thought this team was an unstoppable train)
-Gardner Webb (Like someone else said, we found out later BCG was a drunk fool)
-UAB '04
1988 NCAA round of 16 loss to Villanova, anyone? UK was #2 seed, Villanova #6. That game was awful from start to finish. Chapman had a great game; everybody else not so much*.
*Looking at the boxscore on Jon Scott's site, I note that Winston Bennett also had a nice game but only played 22 minutes. Anybody remember the specifics of why that was?
*Looking at the boxscore on Jon Scott's site, I note that Winston Bennett also had a nice game but only played 22 minutes. Anybody remember the specifics of why that was?
