UK Men's Basketball

It’s Final Four weekend and sadly the Kentucky Wildcats came up short this year in their bid for a 9th national title. Bookending our look back at special moments in UK basketball history WUKY’s Saving Stories highlights another famous shot, the one Duke’s Christian Laettner hit in overtime against the Wildcats in the 1992 East Regional final in Philadelphia. The buzzer beater marked the end of an era for the team affectionately known as “The Unforgettables.” Nunn Center director Doug Boyd shares interviews with UK players Sean Woods – who hit the Wildcats’ go-ahead basket with two seconds on the clock, and John Pelphrey, one of the defenders responsible for guarding Laettner on the long inbounds pass; a split-second moment that he admits misremembering. Doug even shares a clip of a song he wrote about the game and the aftermath called 1992.

Lamont Butler scored 18 points and had six rebounds, but third-seeded Kentucky lost to second-seeded Tennessee 78-65 on Friday night in Indianapolis.

Kentucky and Tennessee are adding a new chapter to their border rivalry Friday night. They're taking it north, to Indianapolis, for their first meeting in March Madness. This NCAA Tournament matchup has higher stakes but similar emotions.

Lamont Butler doesn’t want to settle for just one shining moment on a Final Four stage. The guy who made the buzzer beater to send San Diego State to the 2023 NCAA Tournament championship game is confident he can get back there as a fifth-year senior with Kentucky.

For three quarters of a century the month of March in Kentucky has been tournament time with hoops fever reaching a near fever pitch. And if you're wondering why UK Basketball is sometimes considered an official religion, we submit this audio as exhibit A. In this special episode of WUKY's Saving Stories, UK Nunn Center director Dr. Doug Boyd and Deirdre Scaggs, associate dean and head of Special Collections, join Alan Lytle to re-live one of the most dramatic moments in UK Basketball history called by the legendary sports broadcaster Claude Sullivan; a thrilling triple overtime win over Temple University in Memorial Coliseum. All made possible by the recently deceased Hall of Famer Vernon Hatton who hit THE SHOT. RIP Mr. Hatton.

Koby Brea matched a career high with 23 points and Kentucky beat Illinois 84-75 on Sunday to advance beyond the NCAA Tournament’s opening weekend for the first time since they reached the Elite Eight in 2019.

Vernon Hatton, one of the “Fiddlin’ Five,” an All-America honoree and the leading scorer on Kentucky’s 1958 NCAA National Championship team, has died. He was 89 years old. Hatton helped lead UK to the 1958 title, its fourth in school history. He averaged a team-high 17.1 points per game for the 23-6 squad. Hatton scored 30 points to guide UK past Elgin Baylor-led Seattle in the championship game.

The No. 18 Kentucky Wildcats and Illinois Fighting Illini square off in the NCAA Tournament second round. The teams meet Sunday for the first time this season. Kentucky is 11-9 against the SEC, and Illinois is 13-9against the Big Ten.

Otega Oweh scored 20 points, Andrew Carr had 13 and third-seeded Kentucky beat Troy 76-57 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

Oliver Simmons was a member of Kentucky’s national championship team of 1996. He was recruited to UK by coach Rick Pitino after a high school career in which he was named Tennessee’s Mr. Basketball in 1994 and 1995. Simmons and other reserves worked their way through the same difficult Pitino practices and training as the stars who saw most of the playing time. The roster contained nine future NBA players, including current UK coach Mark Pope. Early in his sophomore season, Simmons transferred to Florida State, where he played for two and a half years and started a total of 47 games for the Seminoles. Simmons has had a long career in teaching and coaching. He and his family live in Stewartville, Minnesota, but he keeps up with the Wildcats and has some great memories of his time at UK. Here, he talks about the experience of being on a championship team and his long-standing relationships with his teammates, as well as some of the challenges of being part of the UK program in that era.