Kentucky Hosting Reunion for 1996-98 Men’s Basketball Teams

The College of Kentucky Athletic Division will have fun the 1996, 1997 and 1998 males’s basketball groups on Feb. 18 inside Rupp Area at Central Financial institution Heart, athletic director Mitch Barnhart introduced on Wednesday evening.

It is among the most heralded stretches in Kentucky males’s basketball historical past, with two nationwide titles and an look in a 3rd title sport in three years.

The reunion shall be for the members of the crew, coaches and managers starting on Friday evening and be capped with recognition in the course of the males’s basketball sport in opposition to Tennessee on Saturday. Tip time is ready for 1 p.m. and the sport will air dwell on CBS.

Kentucky strung collectively 25 consecutive wins, together with a 16-0 mark in Southeastern Convention play, halfway by the 1995-96 season and rolled to its sixth nationwide championship. The dynamic duo of Tony Delk (17.8 factors per sport) and Antoine Walker (15.2 ppg) led the crew dubbed “The Untouchables” by head coach Rick Pitino. Delk tied a championship sport report with seven 3-pointers and the Wildcats withstood a late Syracuse rally to win the title by a 76-67 rating.

Pitino’s reigning champions posted a 35-5 general report and gained the league match title in a quest to repeat as champions in 1996-97. Kentucky marched all the best way to the ultimate sport earlier than falling to Arizona in time beyond regulation by an 84-75 margin. Ron Mercer paced the scoring at 18.1 factors per sport and Derek Anderson added 17.7 per outing.

The crew that turned generally known as the “Comeback Cats” captured its second nationwide title in three years after overcoming a 10-point halftime deficit in opposition to Utah within the nationwide championship sport. UK was 10-3 in video games determined by 10 factors or fewer and 7-1 in video games determined by three factors or much less in the course of the common season in Tubby Smith’s first yr as head coach. Kentucky’s gamers supplied a balanced assault, as all 5 starters averaged greater than 9 factors per sport with senior guard Jeff Sheppard pacing the scoring at 13.7 factors per sport.

-By way of UK Athletics

Extra on the win over Vanderbilt HERE.

Recreation notes from the victory may be discovered HERE.

Extra on Sahvir Wheeler’s new function HERE. 

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