12:01am October 15, 1999
College basketball teams around the country kick off the new season. They all have the same dreams and goals in mind, the coveted title of national champion. For most a dream is all they can ever expect, but for a select few each new season brings another opportunity for the conquest of that national title. For these teams of college basketball's elite, each year they know they have a legitimate chance at achieving that goal. Some season's their chances are better than others, but no matter, they know that in the end one of them will be left standing alone; seldom does an underdog crash the party in this day and age. The University of Kentucky has been one of these handfuls of teams for the last 75 years and the decade of the '90's saw them enjoying one of their greatest periods of success. The Final Four in '93, plus three straight trips to the title game in '96, '97 and '98; winning it all in '96 and '98. When teams have a stretch of dominance such as this they usually have a group of players that stay together for three or four years, but UK's teams were different in that respect. Each season it seemed Kentucky lost two, three or four of the core players of the team, losing half or more of their scoring and rebounding. But each following season someone was ready to step in and take up the slack.

After just missing the Final Four for a fourth year in a row in 1999, the Wildcats faced a steep hill to climb for the 2000 season. They lost starters Wayne Turner, Scott Padgett and Heshimu Evans to graduation, that in itself was a big enough hole to fill. But after the season ended Michael Bradley and Ryan Hogan transferred, plus Myron Anthony had left the team during the season. Kentucky suffered an even greater tragedy when recruit John Stewart died unexpectedly. It was apparent during the off-season UK was going to be lacking the kind of experience they had become accustomed to in recent years. One thing the Cat's were not lacking though was talent; the question now would be was that talent enough to overcome the problem of inexperience?

One of the biggest question marks facing Kentucky was point guard. Saul Smith had been awarded the job almost by default. No one argued that he was the best point guard in the country, but he was the best point guard UK had. Even so the fact that he was the coach's son and the appearance to some that Tubby Smith had not tried very hard to recruit a true point guard during the summer resulted in quite a bit of undeserved criticism toward both coach and son during the year.

The UK Eleven....Football??
As the season approached, Kentucky's normally deep bench stood at 11 players. The Cat's returned eight from the previous year’s squad, but only added three new faces. Freshmen Keith Bogans and Marvin Stone along with a JUCO transfer Nate Knight. Marquis Estill, another frosh, was forced to sit out after not qualifying academically. Of course the basketball scribes were already writing UK's obituary. Lindy's wrote, "Forget any Y2K problems. It will be the end of the world as we know it if UK doesn't participate in the NCAA Tournament."
Basketball News, "UK's outlook is not grim, but it's not good enough by UK standards either."
Athlon, "This is the season UK basketball fans start talking about the good old days-only they aren't that old. Look for that streak to end this season and look for fretting Wildcat faithful to start asking can Tubby Smith win without Rick Pitino's players sprinkled across the line-up."

Basketball Times, "You want pressure? Try fielding a starting line-up rife with inexperience at a school whose fans treat each loss as if the world had ended." Was the apocalypse upon us? This all sounded a bit extreme at the time, but some of it turned out to be rather prophetic.

The Kentucky eleven would get the season off and running at Rupp Arena with an opening round game in the pre-season NIT against Pennsylvania. The Quakers were picked to win the Ivy League title and one of their weapons was Michael Jordan! No not the genuine article, but a talented player in his own right; even so UK was a double-digit favorite to move on.

The Wildcats looked a little rough at times in this first game of the new season, but then again it was the first game for this young team. Kentucky improved on a sluggish first half to win 67-50 and move on to play Utah. The Ute's have become a regular opponent on the UK schedule in recent years. They're never scheduled at the start, but always seem to get thrown in somewhere along the way, like the NCAA tournament. Kentucky overcame another poor performance to beat Utah 56-48 in this second round game, but these anemic efforts were signaling a problem that would haunt the Cats for the entire season.

UK arrived in the Big Apple to face their NIT semi-final opponent, Maryland in Madison Square Garden. It was another low scoring, offensive struggle. Most wrote this off to the fact that it was early in the season and Maryland was one of the higher ranked teams in the country. The Cats prevailed 61-58, but a trend was emerging. The Wildcats were not shooting the ball very well at all and they were showing a tendency to go stone cold for long periods allowing their opponent to catch up when UK seemingly had the game in hand. There were some encouraging signs though, freshmen Marvin Stone and Keith Bogans both had led Kentucky in scoring just three games into the season. Stone had 12 in the season opener and Bogans broke out against Maryland with 17.

UK's trip to New York ended on a sour note, losing the title game to Arizona 63-51. It wouldn't have been so disappointing except for the fact that Kentucky did not look good at all. The Cats turned the ball over 21 times, most of them simply the result of sloppy execution rather then good Arizona defense. The players were starting to stand around too much on offense and it's not very difficult to defend a player that stands still. A few fans were beginning to grumble, as some of them will, but even Tubby voiced a bit of concern too saying, "It's the fourth game of the season, it better be a learning experience."

How much UK learned was debatable. During the next few games the shaky start the season had gotten off to began to turn into a rumbling earthquake! In the next four games Kentucky went 1-3. Three of the games were against teams UK was expected to have battles with, but one was a surprising upset to Dayton, 68-66. Honesty would compel one to admit that considering the difficulty of the schedule, a 4-4 mark was not that unexpected at that point, but what was troubling was Kentucky's offense looked terrible. They were shooting an extremely low percentage, but worse yet from a fundamental standpoint they appeared to be completely unprepared. There was no movement with or without the ball, little screening and at most times they simply looked as though they just didn't know what to do.

Eight games into the season, it's not all that strange for a team to still be a little rough around the edges, but UK was displaying more troubling symptoms. We were hearing things from the players and coaches such as, "....poor decisions on my part..."; "...it was a lack of concentration...."; "....stupid mistakes......."; "....we had five or six turnovers due to mental breakdowns, not forced by the defense." The won-loss record was not the problem; it was just that the offense seemed to have no rhythm at all. The way UK's offense looked at the time, it was difficult to see how they were going to be able to have a winning record against the schedule they were facing.

A Bird in the Hand is Worth.....A 30 Point Win.
No one saw it coming. Not after the first eight games, but just when it appeared Kentucky was about to fall into the abyss of losing basketball the Cats went on an improbable 13-1 streak. It began with a 76-46 shellacking of Louisville. The Cardinals came in favored and a little over-confident, but who could blame them, Kentucky had not looked anything like a team ready to put a 30 point whipping on anyone! After a tight first half, UK held Louisville to just 12 points in the second half, allowing only three field goals. I believe it shocked the Kentucky fans more then it did Louisville's; may be this would be just what the doctor ordered to get the Wildcats offense in high gear.

During this stretch of games Kentucky registered some pretty impressive victories, including a 60-58 win over eventual national champion Michigan State. They knocked off Missouri, Georgia Tech, Miami and Tennessee, all ranked in the top 20 at the time. The only loss came at Auburn and to be honest it was a game UK could have won. Kentucky had gone from 4-4 to 17-5 overall. They were sitting on top of the SEC standings at the halfway point at 7-1. It hadn't seemed possible just a couple of months ago, but even though UK had put together this hot streak, the truth of the matter was the offense was not playing any better than it had during that 4-4 stretch at the beginning of the season. With the exception of two or three games, Kentucky's shooting problems had not improved. The only reason they were winning was because of their defense. The "experts" had expected Desmond Allison, Tayshaun Prince and Jamaal Magloire to carry the major portion of the scoring, Prince was running hot and cold; Allison was mostly just cold. He had a couple of good scoring games, but as time went on he not only began missing his shots, but he also became reluctant to take them. J.P. Blevins was either not in the game long enough to be a factor or when he was he couldn't seem to score.

Magloire meanwhile, was producing in the middle and was dominating his position most of the time. Jamaal was putting up double-doubles almost on a regular basis. Marvin Stone had gotten off to a big start, but had cooled as the season went on. He had come in with the expectation that he would challenge Magloire for a starting position, but I believe those expectations were a little. But, with him and Jules Camara and on the bench the front line was in pretty good shape, but it takes at least some kind of outside threat to prevent the defense from taking the inside players out of the game. It doesn't take long for other teams to figure out your weaknesses and most of them were beginning to be content with covering the inside guys and letting UK shoot from the outside. It worked most of the time, but the Cats were still able to have a good enough shooting game here and there to keep their future opponents honest, but without their tough defense and Magloire's physical presence inside UK would have been on the short end of a lot of these games. To make matters worse, if that was possible, JUCO transfer Nate Knight decided to leave school at the end of December, making an already short bench even shorter. At the time most everyone felt it would not be that big of a factor, since Knight had gotten very little playing time and had not been contributing much when he did. Later on down the road the Kentucky team and fans would have given about anything to see Knight or anybody sitting over there on the bench.

Pitino Ball; Billy Ball; Tubby Ball; Give us any kind of ball, PLEASE!!!
Despite Kentucky's record the natives were getting more and more restless. Usually all it takes to quiet the grumbling UK fan is to put up a bunch of W's. While Kentucky was doing just that the fans and media were still voicing concerns about the Cat's offense, or lack thereof. Kentucky was having trouble scoring points and there was no answer to why it was happening. Confidence is a fragile thing and when one player loses his it can sometimes spread like an epidemic, I believe that is what was gradually happening to the Kentucky players. Now add to this a half-court offense that was not creating enough shooting opportunities and it was easy to see how problems could occur. There had been fans who had longed for UK to return to the running and pressing style that Rick Pitino used a few years ago. Of course others had wanted to see Kentucky get away from it and play a more controlled type of game. No matter what your preference, it was clear that UK's offense could not go on like this. Kentucky had been winning, but it was an ugly brand of basketball and very frustrating to watch. It wasn’t just the aesthetics, because no matter how good a team’s offense looks, if you can’t score, you can’t win.

Frustrating. It was beginning to be heard more as the season wore on. No one likes to criticize the team they follow, but it was becoming harder all the time to be optimistic about UK's chances down the road as long as the offense stayed stuck in this scoring drought. During Joe Hall's career it seemed every February Kentucky went through a four to five game slump. This year it had started in December and hadn't stopped yet.

The change in UK basketball was really driven home when the Wildcats traveled to Gainsville to play Florida. The Gators whipped Kentucky 90-73, playing a style that looked painfully familiar to UK fans. Billy Donovan had brought Rick Pitino's philosophies to the Sunshine State and was starting to have success. It was very difficult to see another team employ the same strategy against Kentucky that the Cats had used just a few short years ago to win two national titles; not to mention a hat full of SEC Championships. UK followed the loss at Florida with another at LSU. It was a pitiful exhibition of basketball. With any kind of offense at all Kentucky would have beaten the Tigers. While LSU's offense wasn't firing on all cylinders, they did out hustle UK. Now the Cats had seen two teams simply play them off the floor in back to back games. Now it was the other team pushing the ball up the floor and forcing the action, pressing and causing the Cats to lose their composure. For the fans it was hard to realize that the Wildcats had come to this. Whether it was Tubby's fault or whoever, UK's offense had gotten into a rut it couldn't seem to get out of. It's one thing to go through a shooting slump, but it's quite another to see a team simply stand around when they have the ball and that's what was happening to the Wildcats.

In recent years one of the things that could be counted on each year was that Kentucky would get better as the year went on. When March rolled around UK was always one of the teams to beat. There were many fans who were saying this was going to happen again this season. When the tournaments started Kentucky would be a team no one would want to play. But as the final games passed, it was obvious that UK was not improving. They actually seemed to be losing confidence instead of building it. It was difficult to imagine this team waking up on the first day of March and somehow having solved all their scoring problems. There were a lot of people still saying it was going to happen, whether they actually believed it or not was another matter.

"Play like you've got Kentucky on your jersey!"
While Kentucky did finish the season 5-1 after the LSU game, they didn't exactly charge into Atlanta like General Sherman. UK had been at home in the Georgia Dome, since it opened Kentucky had gone undefeated in every game they had played there. For many fans that alone was enough to convince them that UK was going to roll right through the SEC Tournament as they had for the last several years. Of course they had more ammunition to fuel their hopes with because the Cats had surprised just about everyone when they whipped Florida at Rupp Arena in the season finale, 85-70. The Wildcats had basically returned the favor given them earlier in the year by the Gators in Gainsville. Indeed it was one of the best games Kentucky had played all season, but it was only one game. Since it had occurred on senior day just before the tournaments this had given new hope for the UK fans that somehow Kentucky was going to come out of its season long offensive funk. It was certainly something to hope for, but honesty compelled one to admit the odds were against it.

During the '90's Kentucky's SEC Tournament record had been impressive. UK had won every tournament except one since 1992 and there were many who claimed that lone loss was more the result of a coach sending a message to his team just before the big dance, than a defeat by the opponent. The Wildcats were lucky in one aspect, their win against Florida in their final game meant they would not have to play on Thursday. For irony, Florida finished the season in a four way tie for the conference title with UK, Tennessee and LSU, but since only two teams from each division got byes in the first round the Gators found themselves forced to play on the opening day even though they were co-champions. Kentucky would play the final game of the day on Friday, taking on Arkansas, who defeated Georgia in the opening round. The Cats had beaten Arkansas in their only meeting during the season. Historically the advantage has been with UK in this match-up. Arkansas had never beaten Kentucky in the SEC Tournament since joining the league. The law of averages was knocking at the door.

All the talk about peaking at the right time and being a different team in March echoed hollow for the Wildcats. Ky fans were looking for a reborn team to take the floor against Arkansas, unfortunately they got the team with the same floundering offense they had seen all season. If UK had gained any confidence at all from their senior day win, the Razorbacks smashed it in an embarrassing 86-72 loss. These two teams have had some classic battles over their brief SEC Tournament history, but this contest would not fall into that category.

It was only the second loss for Kentucky in their last 25 SEC Tourney games; an impressive record indeed, but of little solace on this night. Instead of one of the exciting back and forth, end to end games we've become accustom to from these two teams in the tournament, this was a one-sided rout from the start. The Wildcats came out cold and flat-footed, in other words the same way they had played practically the entire year. While UK appeared only a shadow of the dominating, high-powered teams of their recent past, Arkansas was punishing Kentucky with their traditional "40 Minutes of Hell". After the blistering shooting performance against Florida UK slipped back to misfiring, missing three of their first 17 shots. The very first possession of the game for Kentucky was a bad omen; they turned it over. Then they turned it over some more. UK's first half assist to turnover ratio was 3-16, so it was probably a miracle that Kentucky only trailed 36-22 when the half ended.

Arkansas took full advantage of the loose-fingered Wildcats, scoring 33 points off of turnovers. By the time it was all over Kentucky had turned the ball over a season high 27 times. The first half was probably the poorest half of the entire season and it was coming at the worst possible time. After the game the UK players said their confidence wasn't shaken at halftime, but I'm not sure all of the fans were buying it. Early in the second half during a time-out, a fan sitting near the UK bench leaned forward and yelled, "Play like you've got Kentucky on your jersey!" Kentucky fans and players aren't used to hearing those types of things, but there was some disappointing truth to what he said. The Wildcats were just getting whipped. The Razorbacks never gave Kentucky a chance to make it interesting. They had a run of 12-0 and later another of 14-2 to put it away convincingly. Tubby Smith summed it up perfectly later saying, "They were on top of their game and we weren't on top of ours."

 50 minutes on CBS
The NCAA Tournament had arrived, it is usually a time of excited anticipation for UK fans, but not this year. Oh there was the normal die-hard that said they believed Kentucky is going all the way no matter what the reality of the situation, but for the most part fans and the media were hedging their bets when it came to UK's chances at the Final Four. So most of Kentucky's fans were not feeling all that confident and the ones who were just cautiously optimistic were in for a shock.

The day after the NCAA pairings were announced, Kentucky fans got more bad news with this headline: Desmond Allison Arrested! Allison was arrested on Sunday night and charged with DUI and possession of marijuana. A contentious season seemed to be crashing down around the Kentucky program. The team's mental state was suspect at best, but what would this do? The Cats now lost not only a starter, but the team was down to only nine players. How could any team expect to make a serious run into the tournament with only nine players? Especially one whose offense had struggled all season. For a lot of fans and media members the Wildcat's fate was already sealed; it looked like one and out no matter who they played.

Kentucky's was seeded fifth in the Midwest Region and would play St. Bonaventure in the opening round on Thursday. Under normal circumstances this would be the usual David vs Goliath match-up, but with all the controversy swirling around the Cats no one was making them huge favorites. Indeed there were more then a few who were picking the Bonnies to eliminate Kentucky on the opening day. No matter what kind of team Kentucky has going into the NCAA's, some fans always get this nervous apprehensive feeling before each game and this year they had good reason to feel that way. Everything appeared to be stacked against the Wildcats. They were struggling just to score, now an already short bench was even shorter making fatigue and foul trouble major worries for Tubby Smith. It looked like a mountain too high to climb, but all indications were that they were going to play the game anyway.

Had it happened in a Regional Final or a Final Four it would have been talked about for years. Kentucky's first round game with St. Bonaventure had it all. Drama, comebacks, pressure shots and lucky bounces. The Wildcats found themselves in the unusual position of having to put together a rally to pull the game out. UK got off to the kind of start that had become all too familiar this year, falling behind early. Kentucky's shooting eye continued to fail them and with 11:00 to go in the first half St. Bonaventure led 23-13. A Cat fan's worst nightmare was coming true just as many had predicted, but Kentucky showed they still had enough heart to battle back. UK put together a 23-5 run to close out the first half with a 36-28 lead. Keith Bogans and J. P. Blevins sparked the run with seven points each, but Blevins points seemed to be more inspiring. His three pointer at the 6:46 mark put UK in the lead and with the final seconds ticking away he raced the length of the court for a lay-up at the buzzer. It was a heads up play for sure since many players would have pulled up for a long jumper. As important as these points were, they would be his last.

The second half unfolded in another familiar pattern, Kentucky came out with the momentum, but went cold and let the game get away from them. As a matter of fact before the half was over both teams would have the game seemingly put away only to let the other team back in it. The Cats appeared that they just might be able to put an opponent away for once, when they took a 44-31 lead. But that cold spell set in and with 5:44 to go St. Bonaventure had not only caught up they were ahead 54-49. The Bonnies got the first chance to blow a sure win as they held a five point lead with less than a minute to go. With just 0:10 left they were ahead 63-60. Kentucky called timeout and set up a play for Tayshaun Prince. Prince drove around a couple of staggered screens by Bogans and Jules Camara and fired in a three pointer from the right baseline to send the game to overtime.

It was reminiscent of the Kansas game in last year's tournament when Scott Padgett saved the Cats from elimination with a long three. Now it was UK's turn to throw the game away. The Cats were in even better shape then St. Bonaventure had been, they were ahead 73-68 with 0:20 to go in the OT. St. Bonaventure cut it to 74-70 with 0:09 to go and the Cats began to present their Christmas presents early. Tim Winn streaked to the other end of the floor, hit a reverse lay-up and Camara fouled him. If that wasn't bad enough no one bothered to try to delay his drive up the floor and there were still 0:08.7 seconds left. Winn made the free throw and on Kentucky's possession Magloire made two foul shots to put UK up 76-73, with just enough time left to race up court and throw up a desperation three pointer. Apparently nobody bothered to tell Marvin Stone to just let them shoot. Messiah Capers became the hero for St. Bonnie, as he shot a long three from the side Stone leaped by him swiping at the ball on the way and-- the official blew his whistle. Yes for what seemed like the 100th time this season a Kentucky player had fouled someone shooting a 3 pointer.
To say this came at a most inopportune time would be a major understatement. Stone would say later he had not touched Capers at all and the replays seemed to confirm this, but it was still an ill-advised play by Stone. The clock showed 0.4 second left in the game. Actually it still looked pretty good for Kentucky, Capers was a 55% free throw shooter and had not taken a free throw in the game. Tubby did what most coaches do, he called a time out. The teams returned to the floor, Capers put the first shot up and in. Kentucky called another time out. Everyone came out for a second time, Capers shot his second free throw and made it. With a scowl on his face Tubby called a third time out. Capers came back out to the line, then stepped back for a couple of seconds, took the ball and made the free throw to send the game to a second over-time. Talk about nerves of steel, Kyle Macy would have appreciated this.

Now it was St. Bonaventure's turn to see if they could hold serve. Kentucky had used only seven players and fatigue was becoming a concern for Tubby, but the Cats seemed to be in just as good of shape as St. Bonaventure. The second OT started with the Bonnies scoring first and UK catching up. It went this way a couple of times until Bogans made a free throw that put Kentucky ahead 81-80 and set the stage for luck to take it's turn. With that one point lead and the ball the Cats were running their offense, struggling to get a shot as usual. The shot clock was running down, so Prince tried to drive the lane through heavy traffic. The ball was stripped and popped out right to Bogans who was standing under the basket. He grabbed it and laid it in just beating the shot clock and giving Kentucky a three point lead with 0:12 left. There was no comeback this time, St. Bonaventure missed a three pointer and Prince finished the scoring with two free throws giving UK an 85-80 double over-time win in what could have just as easily been a first round loss in regulation. Some were calling it a great NCAA game, against a tough St. Bon. team. You had to give the Bonnies credit for toughness and their perseverance, but in actuality even short-handed Kentucky had far more trouble with this opponent then they should have and certainly more than they needed. The Wildcats now had one day to prepare for Syracuse in the next round.

Another Big Orange Nightmare
May be it was a fitting way for the season to end. It was almost like putting a suffering animal out of its misery. 52-50 was the score and Syracuse moved on. The score indicates pretty much the kind of game it was, a poorly played contest and another pathetic offensive effort, but this time by both teams. On the one hand you could say neither teams offense played very well, but I suppose one could attribute some of that to the defense. Whatever the case, for UK it was just another game where the Wildcats simply couldn't score. Despite the lack of offensive fireworks, this did turnout to be a tight, suspenseful contest that went down to the last tick of the clock. Neither team led by more than six points, the score was tied 12 times and changed hands 13 times. Kentucky shot another poor percentage, but turnovers probably did the Cats in when it was said and done. Near the end of the year Kentucky's turnovers had increased far too much. The Cats had 19 against the Orangemen and only 14 assists. In a game where each possession is so important teams can't afford to lose any scoring opportunities.

This was a nip and tuck game, each possession was a struggle, there were very few easy baskets. It is rather ironic, but UK probably got more of those then Syracuse. The Wildcats had trouble rebounding, it was one thing they had done well in almost every game. Syracuse got 21 offensive rebounds that led to 22 points. That on top of 19 turnovers and 40% shooting was too much to overcome, yet UK had a chance at the end. The two teams fought to a 50-50 tie with two minutes to go. Both teams had several chances to break it and couldn't. During this stretch Kentucky committed two ill-timed turnovers. UK had the chance to get the advantage after Camara blocked a lay-up by Ryan Blackwell. The Cats called time-out with 1:05 to go and decided to run the same play for Prince that had worked so well in the St. Bonaventure game. Syracuse was ready for it or just played good defense, either way Prince never got the ball. Instead Saul Smith ended up with it at the top of the key. Tubby had chastised Saul for launching a 25 foot jumper from about the same spot just a few minutes earlier, this may have been on his mind. As the shot clock ran down to five seconds Saul passed up an open shot and tried to drive to the basket through twp or three defenders. Jason Hart reached in, got a hand on the ball and just held on to it. A tie-up was called and the arrow was pointing Syracuse direction. At the other end Hart used a move made standard fare by the three point shot; drive hard to the hole and dish it back out to a shooter. He drove Saul back toward the basket, then kicked it out to Preston Shumpert who nailed the jumper to put his team ahead 52-50 with 36.8 seconds left. Kentucky called time-out with 0:10.7 seconds to go. During the next several minutes a psychological chess game played out as both coaches called a series of time-outs, tit for tat, so to speak. When it finally got down to cases UK once again decided to run the play for a Prince jumper and again Syracuse denied it. The Cats went with their next best option, Keith Bogans. Bogans attempted to use a couple of screens to drive down the right side of the lane. Blackwell, taller and heavier, picked him up and bumped him all the way causing Bogans to force up an off balanced, fall away jumper from about seven feet, which never drew iron. But Prince made the Syracuse fans hold their breath for a couple of more seconds when he grabbed the rebound and flipped it back up from almost behind the backboard. The ball rolled across the rim and fell off the other side.

So, the season was finally over. Many Wildcat fans had reached the point that they were ready for this particular year to end and be forgotten. For many schools a 23-10 record and co-champions of the conference would be a very successful season, but at Kentucky it’s simply average at best. The frustrations of fans and coaches went beyond just the won-loss record. It was a tumultuous year. The team won some games against the top schools in the country, including wins over NCAA champ Michigan State and runner-up Florida. But there were troubling things also, none more so then the inexplicable drop in Kentucky's offense. Honesty compels me to point out that in the three years Tubby Smith has been coach, UK's offense gradually declined. This was not strictly in terms of scoring and wins and losses, but mainly of what was seen on the court. It seemed the Cats had lost their aggressiveness and ability to run an offense, along with this had gone their confidence. The Kentucky offense had basically evolved into three players passing the ball around the three point line and eventually shooting a long jumper or trying to force the ball inside. They showed almost no motion, no screens were being set or used properly when they were. Nobody used dribble penetration to try to break down zone defenses and team field goal shooting was the lowest percentage in history.

It was Tubby Smith’s third season at Kentucky and winning the national title in his first year was a hard act to follow; especially at UK. There were many discussions concerning coach Smith’s ability to handle the Kentucky position and more often than not they evolved into Pitino vs Tubby debates. The ‘style’ of play was a constant point of contention. Under Rick Pitino the Wildcats had established a reputation as fast breaking, three point gunslingers whose pressure defense sometimes intimidated opponents before they ever took the court. Tubby Smith had stated he intended to continue the popular strategy, but at that point it appeared that just the opposite was occurring.

There had also been the idea that Smith would be a better recruiter than Pitino. With recruiting being the inexact science it is, it was difficult to say what the answer was on this. Kentucky did not seem to be attracting the top recruits as they had in past years. During this period the UK coaching staff had been their own worst enemy in a few recruiting battles. One example involved Darius Rice and John Grice. Rice had verbally committed to Kentucky, but on at least two occasions cancelled press conferences at which he was expected to sign his letter of intent. UK had also been pursuing JUCO player John Grice, but probably bungled any chance they had of getting him to Lexington. Since it appeared certain Rice would sign with the Wildcats, a member of the Kentucky coaching staff contacted Grice cancelling his official visit to the UK campus. Coach Smith reissued the invitation later and attempted to explain the mix-up and Grice did make the visit to Lexington. However, shortly afterwards he signed with Memphis to play for newly appointed coach John Calipari. Whether or not Kentucky’s ill-handling of Grice’s recruitment had any affect on his decision isn’t known, but it certainly couldn’t have helped.

It was uncertain what the next season would bring, but it was hoped the returning players would improve enough to prevent Kentucky from relying on raw recruits to bring its offense back to life. During the previous season it was thought UK was one year away from having a top ten team and challenging for the Final Four, but now it was not so certain. One thing is certain though, Kentucky basketball has far too much tradition and pride to stay down for the count. The University of Kentucky will be challenging again for the title of national champion and the next season is always as good of time as any to start.
 

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