Top Ten Memorable Sweet Sixteen Games in Kentucky Basketball History
By J Bill Sosh
No. 6 – 2012 – Kentucky 102 Indiana 90
The 2012 Wildcats dominated college basketball to win the eighth national championship for Kentucky Basketball. The Cats went 38-2 for the season. One of the losses was to Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament championship game.
Although an upset to be sure, UK had a 24 game winning streak going into that one. They had been ranked #1 in the polls virtually all season and were assured of the overall top seed in the NCAA tournament.
Kentucky Basketball’s other loss that season did still rankle the Wildcats and their fans. That defeat came to long-time Kentucky rival Indiana in Bloomington in December. The Cats fell 73-72 on a last second three by Christian Watford. The Hoosier fans stormed the home court in celebration, creating quite a melee for the Wildcats to navigate on their way to the locker room.
Catlanta
Kentucky was placed in the NCAA South Regional in Atlanta. As fate would have it, the Hoosiers were the four seed in that region. Both teams won their first two games and faced off in the Georgia Dome on March 23rd. This game proved to be a high-scoring affair, especially for a Sweet 16 round game. The pace of play generally gets more deliberate as the tournament proceeds. Not in this case. Kentucky led 50-47 at halftime.
The hot pace didn’t let up after intermission. The Wildcats built on their lead and had an 8-10 point edge the rest of the way. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist led five Cats in double figures with 24 points and added 10 rebounds. Player of the Year Anthony Davis had nine points and 12 boards. By the end, Kentucky Basketball had extracted vengeance for the loss earlier in the season. They went on to defeat Baylor to win the region and knocked off Louisville and Kansas in the Final Four to bring the banner home to Lexington.