To have a good time SLAM’s thirtieth anniversary, we’re spotlighting the 30 most influential males’s faculty groups from our previous 30 years. Stats, data and chips aren’t the primary issue right here, it’s all about their contribution to the sport’s cultural cloth.
For the subsequent 30 days—Monday by Friday— we’ll be unveiling the full record right here. We’ve additionally bought an unique retro collegiate assortment, out now, that pays homage to every squad’s threads. Store right here.
It’s no secret that Kentucky is without doubt one of the most prestigious faculty basketball packages of all time and has one of the vital demanding fan bases we’ve seen. Kentucky isn’t glad with SEC championships and NCAA Event berths; at Kentucky, the usual is nationwide title rivalry. Closing 4 and Nationwide Championship banners are the one ones hanging within the rafters at Rupp Area. So, after one other unsuccessful season, which ended with a loss within the NIT, they had been able to undergo hell or excessive water to get again on observe. Kentucky wanted a change, and so they wanted one quick.
The primary domino that wanted to fall was discovering a head coach who not solely understood the expectations however wasn’t intimidated by the every day pressures of teaching at Kentucky. There was just one man to do the job; forward of the ‘09-’10 season, Kentucky introduced in a fiery John Calipari–a transfer that modified not solely the trajectory of Kentucky’s basketball program however faculty basketball basically.
Coach Cal didn’t come alone; he introduced within the nation’s high recruiting class–probably the greatest recruiting lessons ever–highlighted by John Wall and Demarcus Cousins. Kentucky’s roster was loaded with expertise that made these Wildcats a must-watch for any basketball fan (until you’re a Louisville fan or a fellow SEC foe). Having expertise is one factor, however getting a bunch of 5 and four-star recruits to play as a unit is the actual problem for any coach. However the 2010 Wildcats had been on one accord. Cal carried out the dribble-drive offense, which solely works when you may have a number of guys who can beat their man off the bounce. Wall and Eric Bledsoe had no points doing so. Add elite bigs like Cousins and Patrick Patterson to the fold, and there you may have it: one of the vital thrilling faculty groups you might think about.
At any time when the 2010 Wildcats hit the court docket of their recent white and Kentucky-blue threads, two-tone Nike taking pictures sleeves and Nike elite socks, they’d the nation’s consideration. If Kentucky had a sport, you’d schedule your day round it.
For a squad led by a freshman core, Kentucky was mature past their years. Nothing rattled them; no second was too huge. They steamrolled by the always-tough SEC, sweeping each the common season and match championships, together with a bunch of particular person accolades.
Wall was SEC Participant of the Yr. Cousins was SEC Freshman of the Yr. Cousins, Patterson and Wall had been first-team All-SEC. Coach Cal was SEC Coach of the Yr.
Kentucky hadn’t had a season like this in years; the job wasn’t completed, although. From the teaching employees to the final man on the bench to the workforce managers, all people who was part of that program embraced the duty at hand–elevating Nationwide Championship banner quantity eight.
“The last word objective was to win a nationwide championship, that’s all we wished to do,” mentioned John Wall in a 2016 interview, recapping the 2010 season. “So what we did all season didn’t imply something.”
Kentucky earned a No. 1 seed within the NCAA Event. They obliterated East Tennessee State, Wake Forest and Cornell, respectively, on their method to an Elite Eight berth the place they’d face No. 2-seed West Virginia. By each metric, and most notably the attention check, Kentucky was the higher workforce. West Virginia is all the time a tricky out, however it by no means crossed Kentucky’s thoughts that they’d lose that sport. Sadly for the Wildcats, they picked the unsuitable day to have an off-night. They couldn’t purchase a 3, at one level lacking 20 in a row. That’s a tough stretch for any workforce to beat, particularly in March Insanity. They’d nonetheless find yourself in an in depth sport, however fell seven factors wanting advancing to what would have been this system’s first Closing 4 since 1998.
Speak about devastated–there wasn’t a dry eye within the locker room after the sport. “‘Til today we nonetheless speak about that sport and the whole lot we may’ve completed otherwise,” mentioned DeMarcus Cousins in the identical 2016 interview talked about earlier.
Regardless of not dwelling as much as the expectations they set on themselves, there’s not a single one who wouldn’t name their season successful. They completed the season 35-3, and Wall and Cousins added first-team All-American honors to their lengthy record of accomplishments. They is probably not remembered as nationwide champions; there is probably not a 2010 banner hanging at Rupp Area; however this workforce revolutionized faculty basketball.
5 gamers (4 of them freshmen) from this squad would enter the NBA Draft, and all 5 of them had been drafted within the first spherical. Wall was chosen No. 1, Cousins was chosen No. 5, Patterson was chosen No. 14, Bledsoe was chosen No. 18 and Orton went at No. 29. This 2010 Kentucky workforce, cultivated by Coach Cal, laid the muse for the way forward for the game; the ripple impact remains to be felt in the present day over a decade later.
If you happen to may solely choose one faculty basketball workforce from the previous 30 years to symbolize the current technology, each on the court docket and off, it’d be powerful to not choose the 2010 Kentucky Wildcats.
Pictures by way of Getty Photographs.
