There is going to be a special about the 78 team on the SEC network at 8 pm central time tonight. My favorite team since I was a freshman at UK at the time.
78 championship
- Thread starter gright
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Younger fans probably won’t agree with this but I think this team is the best Kentucky team in my lifetime (53 years old).
They would have been champions in 77 too, if it wasn't that dean smith 4 corners bull ****.
53 as well about to turn 54 and I don't disagree.
I will say they would at least take 96 98 12 to the limit in a 5 or 7 game series.
Imagine Macy or Shidler with a 3 point line.
People will say the game is played different today than back then. I agree it is.
But I will say great players will be great in any era. You still have to put the through the goal.
It was a great team with so many aspects of experience and balance. If you watch the championship there were crazy foul calls which was what even kept Duke in the game. What made them great besides as I said the balanced talent, passes would be to spots even before the player got there, you had the twin towers, a physical beast in James Lee (who can forget when he took apart the Russian Olympic team), a guy like Givens who knew how to pump fake (a lost art) and money anywhere in the paint, and a rock of a point guard who could shoot, pass, and of course never miss a free throw like Kyle Macy. When Cal talks about fight, you did not want to experience Rick Robey's hip bumps and block outs. They likely were the most physical team we have ever had. 96 might have had more modern talent, but in terms of college teams 78 would have been hard to beat.
I love watching UK play as a team and Win. Maybe this years team needed to watch it.
Only FF I’ve ever been to. Great memories from that.
Really looking forward to it. Hope it's not a hit piece though.
Joe B's best class and one of the best classes at UK ever. 3 E8's, 2 FF's, 1 NCAA title and a NIT title.
Givens, Lee, Phillips, and Robey. Super Kittens.
Joe B's best class and one of the best classes at UK ever. 3 E8's, 2 FF's, 1 NCAA title and a NIT title.
Givens, Lee, Phillips, and Robey. Super Kittens.
Doubt it. Givens is narrating it.
I watched the Florida state game last night. That was ballsy of Joe Hall to bench our starters.
Macy transferred from Perdue and had to sit out the 76-77 season. Not sure we would have won without him.
They could play any style: run and gun (ask Arkansas in FF if they could run) , half court, outside shooting, pound it inside, they could do it all. Plus, and this is the most important, they loved playing at KENTUCKY.
It was one of the most courageous coaching decisions ever. I remember watching the game in the Student Union because it was one of the first places to have a big screen t.v. We all started yelling at the television, "What the hell is he doing" and perhaps more graphic comments then that. The effort of the subs was all out and really kind of won the game because once the starters went back in they just now had gotten the message and game over. If it had gone the other way I am sure that would have been the end of his career. Joe didn't care, he was going to get maximum effort and performance. If you werent doing it the bench was your place no matter the game or your role as a starter or substitute. Too bad Cal didn't teach a few on this current team that lesson.
They were one of the best, if not the best, teams in the country that year. The refs protected UNC during that game. Dean Smith even went on the floor and gave Rick Robey a cussing without getting T'd up . They were 26-4 losing to Wisconsin, UT 2x (who were highly ranked), and UNCheats.
Dean Smith was a punk and maybe the most overratd coach ever. 4 corners chicken ball. 2 titles with enough talent NBA for 2-3 teams.
Jordan, Worthy, Perkins, Daugherty, Stackhouse, Wallace, etc. I just a named a few off the top of my head.
Jordan, Worthy, Perkins, Daugherty, Stackhouse, Wallace, etc. I just a named a few off the top of my head.
You may be right. I just think Macy transferring in for the 77-78 season was fortuitous. I heard Larry Bird wanted to play at UK with the 78 class as well. Hard to imagine how good we would have been if that had happened.
I remember that year well. Yes, this was a "Win or Else" situation. They were clearly the best team in the country by a wide margin, and the NCAAT was basically supposed to be a coronation, which as it turned out, it was. Joe B. , my least favorite UK coach of all time, had already wasted more talent than Bobby Knight ever had! He was truly on the hot seat. The only way they could lose, was if Hall screwed it up. Fortunately, he didn't, this time.
3 of the 4 losses were by 2 points. They lost to Utah in the UKIT after Hall suspended 3 of our top 6 players. Then they lost to UT in OT before another loss to them by 2.
Then in the Elite 8 they lost to UNC who shot 36 free throws to our 16. Unc made 33-36 in that game.
You sir are awesome. Along with @JonScott .
That senior class should have won 3 championships, and could have gone for 4 straight had Rick Robey not broken his leg. That’s how good those guys were.
And you didn't even mention Mike Phillips...big brute of a 5 w/ a damn soft shot for a big.
What about Lee and the Russians? I don't remember it
Our two big guys that year were so tough I remember Giminsky saying it was like hitting two brick walls
What that team would do to the teams playing today would be called child abuse.
My first NC team as a Kentucky Fan.
I was heart broken in '75 when we lost to UCLA and exhilarated in '78 when we defeated Duke.
GREAT team that could play in any era IMO with two beasts down low with Phillips and Robey. Killer guards with Claytor and Macy as floor general. Plus Goose at SF was a tough match up for most teams. Off the bench you had sharp-shooting, blonde bomber guard Jay Shidler and a wrecking machine in PF James Lee.
Coach Hall was a good coach but had to follow the legend in Adolph Rupp and the Baron cast a big shadow--still the HC got the job done and displayed some guts benching the starters to energize the team and fuel the comeback against FSU.
Add to the mix the Joe B. Hall conditioning program that would have been the envy of most college FB programs....most of our players looked like they just arrived from Muscle Beach. We did not get pushed around.
We were back, we were bad, and we were Big Blue Champs!
At the bottom is a linked picture of the late-great Kentucky Center--Mike Phillips.
Would love to see some of that old-time, lunch-pail "we'll whip you on the court or out in the parking lot" attitude by our modern-day Cats.
GBB!
I was heart broken in '75 when we lost to UCLA and exhilarated in '78 when we defeated Duke.
GREAT team that could play in any era IMO with two beasts down low with Phillips and Robey. Killer guards with Claytor and Macy as floor general. Plus Goose at SF was a tough match up for most teams. Off the bench you had sharp-shooting, blonde bomber guard Jay Shidler and a wrecking machine in PF James Lee.
Coach Hall was a good coach but had to follow the legend in Adolph Rupp and the Baron cast a big shadow--still the HC got the job done and displayed some guts benching the starters to energize the team and fuel the comeback against FSU.
Add to the mix the Joe B. Hall conditioning program that would have been the envy of most college FB programs....most of our players looked like they just arrived from Muscle Beach. We did not get pushed around.
We were back, we were bad, and we were Big Blue Champs!
At the bottom is a linked picture of the late-great Kentucky Center--Mike Phillips.
Would love to see some of that old-time, lunch-pail "we'll whip you on the court or out in the parking lot" attitude by our modern-day Cats.
GBB!
We were the best team in 1978 at the beginning and at the end. The guys had lots of pressure on them to stay at the top where they were expected to be at the end. Givens, Lee, Robey, and Phillips made up a stellar recruiting class that went on to mix with multiple players over the course of four years who were great complements to their 1974 class. I was at UK all four of their years and can attest to the fact--having never missed a home game during those years--that we were treated to some great thrills and chills. They were runners-up to UCLA in year one, won the NIT the next year, lost in a tough NCAA game against North Carolina in 1977, and then won it all in 1978. Pivotal, of course, was the inclusion of transfer sophomore Kyle Macy as a point guard in 77-78. Joe B. Hall didn't quite get the credit then, but over the years has finally gotten his due, and that's a good thing. He lacked a little bit of the charisma needed to mitigate his taking over for Coach Rupp, but in retrospect, he did a more than credible job following a legend, and you cannot argue with one championship and a runner-up finish. He was also very close in 1984 with a team led by Sam Bowie.
Yeah it was one the first recognized #1 classes and with half of them being two local high school legends it made them special. They also came along when the TV exposure was about to roll and Rupp arena was built which started the image of UK Basketaball as the new monster in the mondern game.
If somemone could find the article the Las Vegas writer wrote about his experience coming to Rupp for the first time when UNLV visited on senior night and got throttled by these guys. It was the most glowing report you'll ever read about UK basketball and how everything about it was larger than life. The Arena, the crowd, the introductions, the mascots, the players, . . . it was a great article.
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It's on now.....look at those dark blue Kentucky uniforms!
I'm liking the old footage. I like watching old UK footage. Especially old interviews.