I predict that Kentucky will meet Duke in the final game of the NCAA Division 1 basketball tournament and win the game 66 to 56. It will be Kentucky’s 13th NCAA Championship game, the most of any NCAA college basketball team, and 9th Championship, just one behind UCLA.
Kentucky is the winningest NCAA Division I basketball program in history, holding both the most al-time wins (2174) and the highest all-time winning percentage (.764). They lead all schools in total NCAA tournament appearance with 54, is first in NCAA tournament wins with 116 and they have played in 163 NCAA Tournament games.
They have appeared in the most Sweet Sixteens (40), the most Elite Eights (35), and played in 16 Final Fours.
The Wildcats had 9 McDonald’s All-Americans in their recruiting class including Trey Lyles, Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, and Tyler Ulis. This gives the Wildcats tremendous depth.
This Kentucky team has their sights set on a perfect 40-0 season. This would be an all-time record and would be the first undefeated season since the Bob Knight led Indiana in 1976. That’s the same year I competed in the Montreal Olympics. That’s 40 years ago and that is forever in any sport.
On the way to a perfect 34-0 record going into the Tournament, Kentucky beat Kansas, Texas, North Carolina and Louisville by an average 16 points.
Some sports pundits are rooting against Kentucky to achieve their goal, but the signs of greatness are there.
Before they even got to the NCAA tournament, it was a difficult journey. It is hard to win every game in the regular season and the conference tournament. No major conference teams have done that since the 1976 Indiana squad and in the past 35 years only two teams have done it: UNLV in 1991 (lost in the tournament semifinals) and Wichita State in 2014 (who lost to in second round to Kentucky in the second round).
Like Indiana in 1976, Kentucky won all of its games and the SEC conference.
In 1976, Scott May , Kent Benson, Tom Abernethy, Quinn Buckner and Bobby Wilkerson played 32 games each and were the top scorers for Indiana with May leading the way with an average 23 points a game followed by Kent Benson (17 ppg) and Tom Abernethy (10 ppg). Collectively Indiana shot 52% from the field and 70% from the free throw line.
Kentucky is led by Aaron Harrison, Devin Booker, Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein and Aaron’s twin brother Andrew. They each have played 34 games except for Devin Booker, who played 33 games. Kentucky has a balanced attack with Aaron Harrison averaging 11.3 points per game followed by Booker (10 ppg), and Towns, Stein and Andrew Harrison averaging 9 ppg.
As a team they shot 47% from the field and 72% from the free throw line this past season. There is not much to choose between the 2 teams.
Great teams have great coaches. Names like John Wooden (UCLA), Dean Smith (North Carolina), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Bob Knight (Indiana) and Pat Summit (Tennessee Lady Vols) are legends in basketball.
John Calipari has 589 wins (including vacated wins and losses) and has some ground to cover to get to legendary status with the likes of Wooden, Smith, Krzyzewski and Knight but he is working on his resume. A win in this year’s tournament would tie him with Dean Smith and leave him 1 shy of Coach K.
To achieve immortality, Kentucky has to beat Manhattan, Cincinnati, Maryland, Kansas, Wisconsin and Duke in the final.
The stage is set. The curtain rises. Let the madness begin.
