Top Ten Memorable Sweet Sixteen Games in Kentucky Basketball History
By J Bill Sosh
No. 2 – 2015 – Kentucky 78 West Virginia 39
The 2014-2015 Kentucky Basketball team went on a historic undefeated run to start the season. They put epic beat-downs on historic powers Kansas and UCLA, just to name a couple of victims. They steamrolled through the regular season and SEC tournament, with a 34-0 record entering the NCAA tournament.
After two more wins to start the tourney, the top-seeded Cats headed to Cleveland where they would meet fifth-seeded West Virginia on March 26th. The Mountaineers figured to have an uphill battle, but they didn’t lack confidence. At least guard Daxter MIles, Jr. was optimistic. He was quoted before the game as saying, “Salute them for going 36-0, but tomorrow they’re gonna be 36-1”.
Self-confidence is one thing. But giving the supremely talented Cats extra motivation was probably not a wise move. This game was over before you could say “what were you thinking, son?”. Kentucky jumped out to an 18-2 lead. Then it was 30-9. Then 42-15. At the half WVU had trimmed that lead all the way down to 44-18.
Blowout Central
The second half featured more tyranny from the Wildcats. When you look at a play by play chart of a Sweet 16 game, you don’t expect to see a score of 54-19 with 13:46 left to play. You wonder if the official scorer was doing tequila shots during the game. But the Cats were clicking and on a mission. The final score doubled up West Virginia but it was UK fans that were smiling and laughing. Kentucky won a much closer game versus Notre Dame in the next round to advance to the Final Four.
As for Mr. Miles, the great prognosticator, how did he do? Zero points in 19 minutes of play. Don’t poke the bear, indeed.