When you’re Kentucky and your fans expect you to win the NCAA title every year, any eliminating loss is excruciating. Yes, Christian Laettner’s shot holds first place on the Big Blue Misery Index, but there’s a 25-way tie for second.
There was Jacksonville in 1970, when tiny Vaughn Wedeking drew an off-the-ball charge that fouled out Dan Issel. There was Texas Western in 1966. (Somebody had to lose that epochal game.) There was North Carolina in 1977, when Phil Ford didn’t play but John Kuester ran Dean Smith’s Four Corners for nearly the entire second half. There was Carolina and El Deano again in 1995 in what remains Rick Pitino’s most galling defeat.
There was Dwyane Wade’s triple double in 2003. There was UAB in 1981 and also in 2004. There was UConn in the Final Four in both 2011 and last year. There was Western Kentucky in 1971 and Middle Tennessee in 1982. There was Louisville in the Dream Game in 1983. There was the 3-for-33 second half against Georgetown in 1984. There was Arizona in overtime in the 1997 NCAA final, the game that denied Kentucky a run of three consecutive championships.
For unexpected agony, one post-Laettner loss stands above the rest — the 2010 East Regional final. John Calipari’s first Kentucky team set the template for all that has come since. It was heavy on one-and-dones, heavy on top-shelf NBA talent, heavy on personality.
That was the most popular UK team since Pitino’s Unforgettables, the bunch undone by Laettner. Because of the pressure on Kentucky teams to win, not all are fun to watch. (Coach Joe B. Hall described the Wildcats’ 1978 NCAA title as “a season without celebration.”) The 2009-2010 team — headed by John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe, all of whom rank among the NBA’s top 30 scorers today — was hugely entertaining and was good enough to win it all. It didn’t.
Those Wildcats entered the regional final 35-2, having won three tournament games by an aggregate 76 points. It lost to West Virginia 73-66 on a day when Wildcat shooters went 4-for-32 on 3-pointers against Bob Huggins’ thrown-together 1-3-1.
Five years later, an even better Kentucky team stands four victories from a unbeaten national championship, and darn if Huggy Bear isn’t in the way. Huggins’ Mountaineers face the Wildcats on Thursday in Midwet Regional semis.
For Wildcat backers, a not-so-fun fact: Huggins is 8-2 against Calipari. (Seven of those victories came when Calipari was coaching UMass or Memphis.) A year after derailing the Wall-Cousins-Bledsoe bunch, West Virginia led the Wildcats by eight points at halftime in the round of 32. Kentucky rallied to win and would reach the Final Four, but still: If you’re the ‘Cats, this is one opponent you’ve come to dread.
Addressing the assembled media here Wednesday, Huggins described Calipari as “a very dear friend” and mentioned that the Kentucky coach invited him to speak at a clinic in Lexington on, of all things, how to beat the 1-3-1. “They all know I don’t know how to do it,” Calipari said.
After Huggins gave his tutorial, Calipari walked to the front of the room and said, “Now tell them the story about my cousin.”
It’s a stirring, if sobering, tale. Huggins suffered a heart attack at the Pittsburgh airport in 2002. In the ambulance, he drifted in and out of consciousness. At one point, he asked how long it would be until they reached the hospital. “Twenty-two minutes,” the EMT said. “I’m not going to make it,” Huggins said, and he nodded off again.
When he awoke again, the EMT said: “Don’t worry, coach. I’m John Calipari’s cousin. You can’t die until he beats you at least once.”
Let the record reflect that these Mountaineers aren’t like their predecessors of 2009-10. That was a big, strong team. This one starts one man taller than 6-foot-7. (All Kentucky’s starters are at least 6-6.) West Virginia has won because of a press Huggins borrowed from Kevin Mackey, who as Cleveland State’s coach crashed the 1986 Sweet 16 with a No. 14 seed.
The Mountaineers have induced 19.4 turnovers per game. Trouble is, Kentucky averages only 10.6 turnovers. “I have no idea whether we can turn them over or not,” Huggins said.
If not, West Virginia will lose. Apart from stealing the ball, the Mountaineers aren’t even ordinary. They’ve made only 41.2 percent of their shots, which ranks 273rd among Division I teams. West Virginia opponents have made 46.8 percent of their shots, which puts the Mountaineers 324th in that key category.
“I’ve never seen a team give up that percentage and do this well,” Calipari said. “They create havoc.”
For Kentucky fans, the ache of 2010 won’t soon fade, but this latest West Virginia team isn’t apt to pull a similar shocker. These Wildcats are too sound to fall prey to havoc. But Saturday’s Midwest final, against Notre Dame or Wichita State, could be a real bear, as opposed to a Huggy Bear.
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