In honor of Big Blue Madness being right around the corner, we are running a special series where we have some guests on the site and ask them to reminisce about their favorite Kentucky Wildcat basketball moment. I was going to go with Kentucky’s 86-84 win over Duke in the South Regionals Final. That has to be my favorite all time UK memory when I was actually at the game but that is probably the favorite memory of a couple of million other UK fans. So I went with a game I was at in a darker period of UK history and I know it will have several of you asking “How old is this guy?”
1/25/1987
Kentucky 80 #18 Navy 69
Rupp Arena
This game is unique for a couple of reasons. First, several years ago, Kentucky used to ALWAYS be on national TV as kind of a prelude to the Super Bowl and this games was one of those instances. Later that day, the New York Giants and Phil Simms blitzed the Denver Broncos 39-20 in Super Bowl XXI. That Superbowl is actually known for giving us the infamous “I’m going to Disneyland” line as Phil Simms became the first MVP to utter it. But back to basketball.
That version of the Kentucky Wildcats were not very good. Eddie Sutton was at the helm and that team was 10-5 coming into the game. This was a bad season by Kentucky accounts as they barely held off Austin Peay of the OVC by a 71-69 score at Rupp and had undergone a 76-41 thumping at the hands of villain Dale Brown LSU just the previous week at Rupp Arena.
Never the less, this was a big national game in the days before ESPN SEC contracts and the 18th ranked Navy Midshipmen were coming to Lexington. Navy was led by David Robinson and Kentucky’s center was the red headed Californian Rob Locke, affectionately known by Kentucky fans as “Lob Rock”. Regardless to say, expectations were not high for the Wildcats to pull off a Super Sunday Upset.
Eddie Sutton actually did a great job coaching Kentucky’s talent as he went with the time proven mantra of “Let their big guy beat us and contain the rest of the team”. Kentucky used their quickness and athleticism early and rode Rex Chapman’s early hot shooting to take a 40-31 lead at halftime. Once Kentucky got out to an early lead, Navy never really challenged, but the Admiral amazed and thrilled the Rupp Arena crowd to a record game by an opposing player at Rupp.
For the game, Robinson hit 17-22 shots and the “hack an Admiral” strategy did not work well either as Robinson drained 11-12 free throws. Robinson finished with 45 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 blocked shots and the Rupp Arena crowd gave him a standing ovation as Kentucky soundly defeated Navy 80-69. The rest of the Midshipmen could not pick up the slack as they scored just 24 points and hit 10-37 shots. Kentucky was led by King Rex with 22 points and got balanced scoring as Ed Davender, James Blackmon and Rob Lock scored 13, 13, and 12 points.
In the hierarchy of Kentucky’s basketball wins, I doubt this even ranks in the top 100 all time as Kentucky limped to an 18-11 record and a first round NCAA exit courtesy of Ohio State. The next year, it all hit the fan as Rex Chapman bolted for NBA after and the rest is infamy. But the opportunity to see one of the best college basketball players of all time, who became one of the NBA players of all time at his prime was definitely a game for the ages for us at Rupp Arena.
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