If You Could Change One Play...

[WuShock16]

Great offseason thread. My reactions:

5. For perspective and another thread idea - what are the ones that worked out that provided a huge lift? The discussion has to start with Fred’s contested 3 against Zaga... in my opinion, the moment that the national profile of the current iteration of this program was born.

Again, great offseason thread.

Another one. If Jackie Carmichael's foot misses Tekele's face, the Shockers probably lose that game, and there is no telling what that does to the rest of the season. Maybe the Shockers would have won on Senior Night against Evansville, knowing it HAD to win that game to maintain at-large potential...but a loss to the Redbirds and everything else playing out the same would have pushed the Shockers back towards the at-large cut-off line.

[Stickboy46]

I fully believe if you were to give Ron a 3 against Louisville or have Fred's 3 go in against UK, we win the national championship each year. I'll take Fred's 3 because him missing that shot was the biggest gut punch I can remember feeling as a fan. Not losing for almost a year and then losing like that was gross. As a bonus, that shot would go down in NCAA history and be played in tournament highlight videos for eternity.

If I had the choice between changing 1 of those 2 years to win the Natty, It would 100% be change Fred's 3 to go in. We would have ended up undefeated with one of the toughest path's to a title in history.

All in all, I'd change the Louisville game, because It's much more likely we win the natty that year.

[WuShock Reaper]

"Ranking the 50 greatest UK basketball wins of all time: Nos. 10-1" - The Herald-Leader

By Mark Story
July 27, 2018 02:59 PM

https://www.kentucky.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mark-story/article215311105.html

"The University of Kentucky has won 2,263 men’s basketball games in its regal hoops history, 126 of them in the NCAA Tournament alone.

So trying to pick the “50 Greatest Kentucky Men’s Basketball Wins of All Time” is a fool’s errand. There have literally been hundreds of exceptional UK men’s hoops victories.

Still, for both the fun and the challenge of it, I set out this summer to pick UK’s 50 greatest men’s hoops wins.

What qualifies as a “great win?”...

#3 - The game: Kentucky 78, No. 2 Wichita State 76, 2014 NCAA Tournament round of 32

The plot: Wichita State was 35-0, ranked No. 2 in the AP poll and a legitimate threat to win the NCAA championship. After an underachieving regular season, Kentucky was 25-10. Before 19,676 at the ScottradeCenter in St. Louis, the Shockers shot 55.1 percent (27-of-49), hit 10 of 21 three-pointers and got huge games from stars Cleanthony Early (31 points) and Ron Baker (20) — and lost. “Growing up” when it mattered most, Kentucky freshmen Andrew Harrison (20 points), Aaron Harrison (19), Julius Randle (13 and 10 rebounds) and James Young (13, the go-ahead trey inside the 1:30 mark) shocked the Shockers.

Why the game is ranked: In terms of two teams both playing at a high level, it’s the best NCAA Tournament game I’ve ever seen in person.

#2 - The game: No. 5 Kentucky 86, No. 3 Duke 84, 1998 NCAA Tournament round of eight...

#1 - The game: No. 5 Kentucky 92, No. 1 Indiana 90, 1975 NCAA Tournament round of eight..."

[WstateU]

"35-0, ranked No. 2 in the AP poll and a legitimate threat to win the NCAA championship."

Me for a week after the game...

https://media.giphy.com/media/d2lcHJTG5Tscg/giphy.gif

[WuShock16]

The thing that will make me forever proud is that Kentucky has to play out of it @$$ to beat Wichita State. Re-read that sentence a time or two. The Shockers weren’t exposed as an overrated small-conference wannabe. The blue bloods from Bluegrass absolutely had to pull out all stops to win that game...both games actually (second to a lesser extent but still).

Wichita State lost to Marshall. The Shockers did not “lose to” Kentucky.