The Wildcats enter the NCAA Tournament trying to become the first team since Indiana to finish undefeated
The 2015 Kentucky Wildcats are attempting to defy the odds and run the Division I college basketball table, an undertaking that hasn’t been accomplished in 39 years.
What makes this run even more impressive is the lack of experience on the Kentucky roster – 11 of the 16 players are either freshmen or sophomores. Concomitant with the lack of senior leadership, several other determining factors exist today that didn’t in 1976 when Indiana won the NCAA Tournament finishing a perfect 32-0, two of which are the additions of the three-point line and the shot clock. The other hurdle is the issue of parity, with so many more teams capable of making deep runs, one poor shooting night could spell doom for any team.
What many people don’t remember is that Indiana’s 1976 unblemished record was the third time in four years that a team reached perfection. And had it not been for an injury to Indiana’s star player Scott May on the final game of the 1975 season, college basketball may very well have seen four, consecutive undefeated teams.
UCLA won the national championship behind All-American Bill Walton in 1972 and 1973 finishing 26-0 both seasons. Subsequently, Indiana nearly pulled off the same trick the following two years.
The Hoosiers finished the 1975 season 29-0 but in the regular season finale against Purdue, Indiana won the battle but lost the war. May, who was an All-American both in 1975 and 1976, broke his left arm during that fateful game.
After vanquishing Texas El-Paso and Oregon State during the first two rounds of the ‘75 tournament, the Hoosiers lost by two points to Kentucky in Midwest Regional final, 92-90, in which May, hampered by the arm injury, played only seven minutes and scored just two points.
Indiana Head Coach Bobby Knight has always said the 1975 team that went 31-1 was the best team he ever coached. It was so good that four of the team’s five starters – Scott May, Steve Green, Kent Benson and Quinn Buckner – made the five-man All-Big Ten team.
Kentucky may be the best team since the 1976 Hoosiers, but they’ll have to prove it in the ‘Big Dance’ by winning six more games.
