In the basketball offices in Durham, Charlottesville and Spokane, one can all but envision head coaches emitting silent screams.
From Madison to Lawrence to Tucson, one imagines men's hoops head men shaking their heads side-to-side in resignation — what are you gonna do?
It's not enough that Kentucky has beaten the six ranked teams it has played this season by an average of 17 points. Or that UK has been No. 1 in the national polls all season. Or that the Wildcats are two games — Tuesday night at Georgia, Saturday vs. Florida — from an undefeated regular season.
On top of all that, John Calipari says the escalating, late-season development of freshman Trey Lyles is about to turbocharge Kentucky to an even higher level of play.
Said Calipari: “He's the one that makes us go from pretty good (to) really good to, ‘Uh-oh, what am I watching?'”
Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter's Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.
On This Day In UK Basketball History
- On March 18, 1966, Louie Dampier joined the 1,000-point club. He did it in 53 games.
- On March 18, 1966, Kentucky, the No. 1 team in the nation, faced off against No. 2 Duke in the 1966 NCAA Final Four. Louie Dampier (23 points) and Pat Riley (19) led the top-ranked Cats past No. 2 Duke in front of 14,253 at the Cole Field House in College Park, Md.
- On March 18, 1972, Adolph Rupp coaches his last game at UK, a 73-54 loss to Florida State for the Mideast Region title in the NCAA Tournament.
- On March 18, 1978, in the 1978 NCAA Tournament round of eight, sophomore point guard Kyle Macy scored nine points in the final 6:16 to rally the Wildcats past Michigan State and freshman star Earvin “Magic” Johnson before 13,485 at the University of Dayton Arena.