Ranking UK’s 10 most unexpected NCAA tourney losses — and Kansas State’s high on the list

If you had asked me on Selection Sunday, I would have said expecting the 2017-18 Kentucky Wildcats to advance beyond the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 was unrealistic for a team that entered the Big Dance with double-digit losses and clear vulnerabilities.

Yet, when UK lost to Kansas State 61-58 in the South Region semifinals Thursday night in Atlanta, I was as surprised by that outcome as any Kentucky sporting event I’ve covered for the Herald-Leader.

What changed over 11 days is that the South Region bracket “opened up” for Kentucky like the Red Sea parted for Moses. By the time the No. 5-seed Wildcats got to Atlanta, the South’s top four seeds had already been eliminated.

Yet UK failed to take advantage, falling to a pedestrian Kansas State team in a game filled with frustrating Big Blue “what ifs?”

In the aftermath, I’ve been thinking of where the unexpected demise of John Calipari’s 2017-18 Wildcats should rank on the list of Kentucky’s 10 most-surprising NCAA Tournament losses:

10. UAB 69, No. 8 Kentucky 62, 1981 Mideast Region second round. In 1980-81, the Alabama-Birmingham men’s basketball program was in its third year of existence. For Coach Gene Bartow’s Blazers to eliminate tradition-rich Kentucky from the NCAA tourney was staggering.

9. Ohio 85, No. 4 Kentucky 69, 1964 Mideast Region semifinals. The unranked Mid-American Conference champions held Kentucky star Cotton Nash to 10 points while putting four players in double figures in a rare blowout upset.

8. Louisville 76, Kentucky 61, 1959 Mideast Region semifinals. UK was the defending NCAA champion and ranked No. 2 in the country. Yet Coach Peck Hickman’s unranked Cardinals limited Kentucky All-American Johnny Cox to 10 points and pulled the shocker.

7. No. 6 West Virginia 73, No. 2 Kentucky 66, 2010 East Region finals. Led by freshman stars John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, UK won its first three NCAA Tournament games by an average margin of 25.3 points. However, a veteran West Virginia squad utilized a quirky 1-3-1 zone to confound the youthful Cats. The result was 4-for-32 UK three-point shooting and an Elite Eight meltdown.

6. No. 10 St. John’s 64, No. 1 Kentucky 57, 1952 East Region finals. On Dec. 17, 1951, top-ranked UK blasted then-No. 2 St. John’s 81-40 in Lexington. So it was a stunner when Coach Frank McGuire and St. John’s pulled off the monumental reversal over the Cats when it mattered.

5. Ohio State 82, No. 5 Kentucky 81, 1968 Mideast Region finals. Led by sophomore stars Dan Issel, Mike Casey and Mike Pratt, Kentucky had a path to the Final Four that didn’t leave Lexington. Ohio State’s Dave Sorenson blocked UK’s road by hitting a 6-footer with three seconds left to give the Buckeyes an 82-81 win in Memorial Coliseum.

4. Kansas State 61, No. 18 Kentucky 58, 2018 South Region semifinals. Kansas State was a No. 9 seed that had gone 0-7 in the regular season against the other three Big 12 squads — Kansas, Texas Tech and West Virginia — to reach the Sweet 16. For Bruce Weber’s crew to best UK, Kentucky had to help out. UK did, missing 14 free throws, committing 15 turnovers and making only 16 of 42 field-goal tries.

3. UAB 76, No. 2 Kentucky 75, 2004 St. Louis Region round of 32. Coach Tubby Smith’s Wildcats were the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tourney, but a horrid shooting performance by UK (27 of 61) allowed Coach Mike Anderson’s No. 9-seeded Blazers to upset the Cats.

2. No. 7 Western Kentucky 107, No. 8 Kentucky 83, 1971 Mideast Region semifinals. At the time of the game, Adolph Rupp’s policy of UK not playing in-state foes was in place and Kentucky and Western had never met. UK’s aura was such, many commonwealth basketball fans could not conceive of an in-state, OVC team — as WKU was at the time — beating UK.

When Jim McDaniels and Western then ran Kentucky off the court, it was a confounding outcome for many in the commonwealth.

1. Middle Tennessee State 50, No. 15 Kentucky 44, 1982 Mideast Region first round. At a time when Kentucky would not play Louisville, a Cats’ victory over MTSU would have meant a UK-U of L tournament meeting in the next round. Instead, UK went AWOL against the OVC champions. Kentucky scored only 14 points in the second half and failed to have even one player reach double-figure scoring.

It’s hard to imagine there will ever be a more bewildering UK tournament performance than that.

This story was originally published March 24, 2018 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Ranking UK’s 10 most unexpected NCAA tourney losses — and Kansas State’s high on the list."