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The Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team is an American
college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
team that represents the
University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...
. Kentucky is the most successful NCAA Division I basketball program in history in terms of all-time winning percentage (.765). The Wildcats are currently coached by
John Calipari John Vincent Calipari (born February 10, 1959) is an American basketball coach. Since 2009, he has been the head coach of the University of Kentucky men's team, with whom he won the NCAA Championship in 2012. He has been named Naismith College C ...
. Kentucky leads all schools in total NCAA tournament appearances (59), NCAA tournament wins (131), NCAA Tournament games played (184), NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances (45), NCAA Elite Eight appearances (38), total postseason tournament appearances (68), and are second in regular-season conference championships (53, of which 51 are Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular-season championships). Furthermore, Kentucky has played in 17 NCAA Final Fours (third place all-time behind
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
and
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
), 12 NCAA Championship games (tied for first all-time with UCLA), and has won eight
NCAA championships The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
(second only to UCLA's 11). In addition to these titles, Kentucky won the
National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...
(NIT) in both 1946 and 1976, making it the only school to win multiple NCAA and NIT championships. Kentucky also leads all schools with sixty-three 20-win seasons, sixteen 30-win seasons, and six 35-win seasons. Kentucky was the first school to 1000 wins in 1968 and 2000 wins in 2009. From 1967 to 1990 and 1996 to 2022, Kentucky led all schools in all-time wins. Between 1990 and 1996 and since March 25, 2022, Kentucky has ranked second. Throughout its history, the Kentucky basketball program has featured many notable and successful players, both on the collegiate level and the professional level. Kentucky holds the record for the most overall NBA Draft selections (128) and three Wildcats have been selected as the first overall pick (
John Wall Johnathan Hildred Wall Jr. (born September 6, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A Raleigh, North Carolina native, Wall was chosen with the List of firs ...
,
Anthony Davis Anthony Marshon Davis Jr. (born March 11, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He plays the power forward and center positions. Davis is an eight-time NB ...
, and
Karl-Anthony Towns Karl-Anthony Towns Jr. (born November 15, 1995), sometimes known as KAT (his initials), is a Dominican-American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketb ...
). The Wildcats have also been led by many successful head coaches, including
Adolph Rupp Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was an American college basketball coach. He is ranked seventh in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching at the Univ ...
, Joe B. Hall,
Eddie Sutton Edward Eugene Sutton (March 12, 1936 – May 23, 2020) was an American college basketball coach. A native of Bucklin, Kansas, Sutton played college basketball at Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State) and was a head coach at the high school, junio ...
,
Rick Pitino Richard Andrew Pitino (born September 18, 1952) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach for Iona College. He was also the head coach of Greece's senior national team. He has been the head coach of several teams in NCAA D ...
,
Tubby Smith Orlando Henry "Tubby" Smith (born June 30, 1951) is an American college basketball coach. He was the men's basketball coach at High Point University, his alma mater. Smith previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, the Univers ...
, and
John Calipari John Vincent Calipari (born February 10, 1959) is an American basketball coach. Since 2009, he has been the head coach of the University of Kentucky men's team, with whom he won the NCAA Championship in 2012. He has been named Naismith College C ...
. Kentucky is the only program with 5 NCAA Championship coaches (Rupp, Hall, Pitino, Smith, Calipari). Four Kentucky coaches have been enshrined in the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...
: Rupp, Sutton, Pitino, and Calipari. Former Wildcat players that have gone on to become head coaches include C. M. Newton,
Pat Riley Patrick James Riley (born March 20, 1945) is an American professional basketball executive, former coach, and former player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been the team president of the Miami Heat since 1995, and he also se ...
,
Dan Issel Daniel Paul Issel (born October 25, 1948) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. An outstanding collegian at the University of Kentucky, Issel was twice named an All-American en route to a school-record 25.7 points per ...
,
Dwane Casey Dwane Lyndon Casey (born April 17, 1957) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is a former NCAA basketball player and coach, having played and coached there ...
,
John Pelphrey John Leslie Pelphrey (born July 18, 1968) is an American college basketball coach, currently the head coach of the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. After being named Kentucky Mr. Basketball in 1987, he became a star college player at the University ...
,
Scott Padgett Scott Anthony Padgett (born April 19, 1976) is a retired American professional basketball player and current assistant coach for Manhattan. He was formerly the head coach at Samford University. He played for the National Basketball Association's ...
,
Steve Masiello Stephen John Masiello Jr. (born September 2, 1977) is an American college basketball coach and a former player. He most recently served as men's head coach at Manhattan College. Masiello is a native of White Plains, New York. He graduated from I ...
,
Mark Pope Mark Edward Pope (born September 11, 1972) is an American basketball coach and former player who is the nineteenth and current head coach of Brigham Young University's (BYU) men's basketball team. He played college basketball for the Kentucky ...
, and
Travis Ford Travis Ford (born December 29, 1969) is an American college basketball coach, who is currently the head coach of the Saint Louis Billikens men's basketball, Saint Louis Billikens men's basketball team. He was also previously the head coach at C ...
.


History


Early history (1903–1930)

During this early era Kentucky was unstable in that the school went through multiple coaches, most staying only one or two seasons. Records indicate that the first head coach of the Wildcats was W. W. H. Mustaine, who in 1903 called together some students, took up a collection totaling $3 for a ball, and told the students to start playing. The first recorded intercollegiate game at the college was a 15–6 defeat to nearby
Georgetown College Georgetown College is a private Christian college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. The college offers 38 undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts in educat ...
. The team went 1–2 for their first "season", also losing to Kentucky University (later
Transylvania University Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded in 1780 and was the first university in Kentucky. It offers 46 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, and is accredited by the Southern ...
) but defeating the Lexington
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
.Nelli, p. 14 Through 1908, the team did not manage a winning season, and had an all-time record of 15–29. In the fall of that year a full-time head coach was hired,
Edwin Sweetland Edwin Regur Sweetland (January 10, 1875 – October 21, 1950) was a coach, trainer, and athletic administrator at several American universities. During his coaching career he was head coach of many sports including basketball, track and field and c ...
. This made him the first paid coach in Kentucky's basketball history. That year, the team went 5–4, and only three years later, boasted their first undefeated season with nine victories and no losses.Nelli, p. 15 The 1914 team under
Alpha Brummage Alpha Brumage (March 16, 1880 – March 11, 1963) was an American football player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. Early life and playing career Brumage was a native of Beloit, Kansas and graduated from Beloit High School. He at ...
, led by brothers Karl and
Tom Zerfoss Thomas Bowman Zerfoss (June 15, 1895 – August 5, 1988) was an American football and basketball player and coach. He played for both the Kentucky Wildcats of the University of Kentucky and the Vanderbilt Commodores of Vanderbilt University. H ...
, went 12–2 and defeated all its
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) was one of the first collegiate athletic conferences in the United States. Twenty-seven of the current Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) football programs were members of this conferen ...
opponents.


George Buchheit and the "Wonder Team" (1919–1925)

In 1919,
George Buchheit George Clifford Buchheit (March 22, 1898 – May 24, 1972) was an American college basketball coach. He was the head of the Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team of the University of Kentucky from 1920 to 1924, where he compiled a 44–27 reco ...
became the new head coach of the Wildcats. An alumnus of the University of Illinois, he brought with him a new system of basketball. The "Buchheit system" or "Illinois system", focused on defense and featured one player standing under each basket, while three roamed the court. Buckheit varied the system he learned in Illinois in one important way. While the Illinois system employed a
zone defense Zone defense is a type of defense, used in team sports, which is the alternative to man-to-man defense; instead of each player guarding a corresponding player on the other team, each defensive player is given an area (a zone) to cover. A zone def ...
, Buchheit's system used an aggressive man-to-man scheme. On offense, he used a complicated system of passing called the "zig-zag" or "figure eight" offense. Although the team had a losing season in Buchheit's first year, they won the first-ever
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) was one of the first collegiate athletic conferences in the Unite