5 Mike Ballenger

On This Day in UK Basketball History

On December 22, 1953, undefeated Kentucky checked LaSalle's Tom Gola and turned loose its own Cliff Hagan to score a 73-60 victory and gain the championship of the University of Kentucky's first invitational basketball tournament.  The significance of Kentucky’s win over La Salle became apparent after the 1953-54 season. Unbeaten at 25-0, UK declined a bid to the NCAA Tournament because its three best players, Hagan, Tsioropoulos and Frank Ramsey were graduate students and therefore ineligible to play in the postseason by the rules of that time. With UK out of the field, La Salle won the 1954 NCAA championship.