In fact, Rupp Arena is one of SEVERAL 'Jayhawk arenas' around the country (the 'Dean Dome' is another).
Besides Adolph Rupp, John Calipari also learned how to coach at KU (from two, multiple-Final-Four, KU coaches). (Current UK asst coach, John Robic, also learned at KU.)
UK basketball coach Alpha Brummage was a KU grad, Jayhawk basketball player and Kansan.
Sutton (a Kansan) went on record saying almost everyone he knew (including himself) was a passionate Jayhawks-basketball fan.
Several other UK basketball coaches lived in Kansas/Kansas City, either before or after they coached at UK (Tigert, Wendt, Park, Tuttle) I highly doubt it's two completely separate things that they both learned to love basketball AND lived in Kansas.
Native Kansans account for right-at 44% of the all-time wins at Kentucky, as well as 44% at North Carolina (Smith [KU alum] & Guthrage). And then add-in Roy Williams -- he lived in Kansas 15 years -- so really, that bumps-up UNC's Kansas-connected all-time wins to right-at 60%.
(Who are the top-3 programs in all-time wins, again?)
The most dominant player to ever play the game played at Kansas (most NBA records). (I know that's an arguable statement, but the argument almost always involves young people who aren't familiar with how Chamberlain would compare to today's players, and don't realize the numbers he put-up against both Russell and Jabbar.)
The inventor of the game coached at Kansas.
The "Father of Coaching" coached at Kansas.
UK claims multiple, old, Final Fours in old, weak, competing-with-the-NIT, "Championship" tournaments, which took only one win to "earn".
The real, current tournament didn't even start until 1975 and, since then, yes, UK has two more titles, but KU has had a lot of 2nd place finishes and is ahead of UK in so many, other categories. As I recently showed, Ken Pomeroy's data shows that, compared to Calipari, Bill Self is a more consistent coach. (The last-three times KU's played UK, it faced [and lost to] two of UK's best-ever teams, yet still, since the mid '80s/the "modern [seasons] era", UK has won only one more game in the series...and, in January, UK will be faced with the practically impossible challenge of winning in Allen Field House.) (Did you know: dating back to the late 1970s, in head-to-head UK-KU match-ups, until last season, the total points scored in the seventeen, previous, UK-KU match-ups were within only five points of each other?)
Coach K and Self are quite-a-ways ahead of Calipari in not losing, both at home and in true road games.
KU has lost only three home games in the past-eight seasons: one caused by a crazy 3-pter after an improbable, 15-4, late-game run, and another to a top-10 team only half-a-day/night after KU's star player's mother unexpectedly, tragically passed away (NONE of the KU players had slept the night before [the game]).
And I say all the above, not only to illustrate -- basketball-wise -- how tough it is to win in AFH, but to, in a way, illustrate how "it's only a game"; family and support is more important than basketball, and I'm happy the KU players came together and rallied around that devastated player (who has no other family, except a very young sister), and the team put a teammate's needs above their own. That's class, and I'm sure MANY UK players also have that same, very good character -- the kind that doesn't want to make excuses, or compare a simple game -- entertainment! -- with the cherished value of a complex life -- especially the life of a family leader.
Now, back to the topic of 'just basketball':
Looking further back than eight years-ago (almost 26 yrs-ago), KU has experienced 21 home losses since early 1990. Kentucky (ten years behind) has experienced 21 home losses since the year 2000. Since KU last missed the NCAA tournament, UK's missed it four times (twice due to not winning enough, twice due to sanctions, and, a few years before that, a Sweet 16 had to be vacated). DON'T TELL ME THOSE FOUR TOURNEY MISSES DON'T GREATLY REDUCE THE VALIDITY OF UK'S CLAIM TO #1, BECAUSE THEY DEFINITELY DO.
Many of the times when KU's lost early in the Tourney, it's been to a team who's went on to reach the Final Four, but at least KU always reaches the tournament and doesn't lose in the first round of the NIT.
At least KU has a 'modern era' winning record over UNC and UCONN.
And that's another thing: "the modern era". UK fans make endless fun of Helms banners, yet, LOL, have absolutely no shame in flaunting "championship" banners and "final four" banners from terribly old and terribly weak and invalid "championship" tournaments, in which the competition consisted of just a few "cupcake" conference winners mixed with just a few good teams (easy tournaments). Some conferences had multiple, truly great teams -- with multiple teams who could've won the national championship -- but all those many teams weren't invited, thus greatly weakening the validity of the pre-1975 tournaments (and especially the pre-1960s tournaments, from which UK claims FOUR of these [in relation to today] "bogus" "titles").
Both KU and UK have eight, 'modern era' (since mid-80s) Final Four appearances and, weighing everything statistically, Pomeroy data shows that KU's had "the most consistently highly successful" past-14 seasons, and, as you can see with other data, KU's claim to #1 goes back further than 14 seasons-ago.
I suspect most KU fans tend to think of UK's many great accomplishments the same way a proud father would view his boastful, young-adult son's many, great, world-renown, child-actor accomplishments: wishing he, instead, would've accomplished some of the things his son has, yet very proud for pointing him in the right direction, and quietly patient as he's learning where he fits in, and as he's learning not to put so much emphasis on accomplishments which happened long-ago when competing against talent which is much-less strong & less respected, compared to what he faces today. He hopes his son will someday realize all his father's done for him.
But no: I'm not a KU fan.
I'm a Washington State, UK, Brown and Jacksonville fan.
'Just sharing info & my suspicions.
Ps, If you study statistics at all, you'll see Duke is clearly the best program of the 'modern era' and K the best coach. His accomplishments carry a lot of weight because they've consistently happened in a more-difficult-to-win era -- and I don't care for Duke.
(EDIT: Sorry for any, possible, spelling/grammar errors.)
Below link: a "can't we all get along?" (and historically informative!) old, 'SchoolHouseRock' video:
(Don't TELL me that tune 'ain't' catchy!!!!!!)
Go Wildcats!!!!!!!
