Kentucky Wildcats: Best College Team Ever?

[Megatron]

The Kentucky Wildcats basketball team just completed an undefeated regular season with their victory over Florida this afternoon. That makes them 31-0, the undisputed #1 overall seed, and heavy favorites to win the NCAA tournament. They are the first power 5 team to go undefeated since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers, who are also the last team to complete a perfect undefeated season. With their success, the question begs to be asked:

If the Hoosiers were to finish the regular season 40-0, would they be the best NCAA men's team ever?

Now, there's many solid options to choose from, including the 76 Hoosiers, a few of Wooden's UCLA teams, the 56 San Francisco team, among others. However, this UK team will have won quite a few more games than any of them. They have multiple NBA players on their roster, they have not strayed away from anyone (11-0 against RPI top 50, 18-0 against RPI top 100, their non-con SOS was 15). They have not shied away from the competition. If they are able to run the table, they'd most definitely belong at the table.

So, what says you?

(How's that for a clickbait headline?)

 

[klunderbunker]

No, and that's coming from someone with a degree from UK who has watched every game this season and lives ten minutes from Rupp Arena.

There's a man you young people may not have heard of named Lew Alcindor. You might however have heard of him by his other name of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Back in the 1960s, freshmen were banned from playing on the varsity team. UCLA would annually play a varsity team vs. freshman team scrimmage before the season. In 1964, UCLA won the National Championship. The next season, the freshman team, lead by Alcindor, beat them by 15 points.

In Alcindor's debut on the varsity team, he scored 56 points. What followed might have been the greatest college career of all time, including a freshman team that went 30-0 and won the National Title. The following year, they went 29-1 and wont he National Title. The following year, they went 28-1 and won the National Title.

You could also throw in the UCLA teams that won 88 games in a row, the UK team from 1995-1996 who didn't so much win the NCAA Tournament but rather had a three week national tour before their official coronation.

This UK team is good to very good. Those other teams are great and featured talent that would maul these guys. I have no idea who could handle Alcindor, because no NCAA player ever did and almost no one in the NBA ever did. Cauley-Stein and Towns certainly wouldn't be able to do it.

No, they're not the best team ever. They might have the best record, but that doesn't mean best team.