The Kentucky Wildcats are going down in the record books no matter what happens during the NCAA tournament.
They're either winning the national championship and setting themselves up for an all-time 40-0 finish, or they're losing and becoming the starter for such conversations as, "Hey, remember when Kentucky had that ridiculous, undefeated season and then choked in the tourney?"
No one wants to become the 2007 New England Patriots. The goal is a little different, something like turning into this year's Pats.
In college basketball, we remember the historic teams. Here are the 10 squads UK is trying to pass to earn a spot amongst the best ever.
10. 1950 City College New York Beavers
It's one of the most forgotten about championship teams because no one wants to remember the scandal it brought. Here's the good: The Beavers are the only team to win the NCAA tournament (of course, it was a different iteration of the tourney back then) and the NIT in the same season. Yes, teams could participate in both back in the day.
But there was lots of bad: Multiple players from CCNY were proven to be fixing games. Imagine if the best team in the country was full of point shavers. That's what was going on with the Beavers (and six other schools who had players involved in a scandal which would've blown up the Internet if it happened today).
9. 1992 and 1993 Michigan Wolverines
Jalen Rose was one fifth of the Fab Five.
Michigan may have won a national championship in 1989, but its real dominance came during the era with which we're all more familiar: the years of the Fab Five. Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson made up one of the best recruiting classes of all time and in 1991-92, became the first group of freshmen to make up an entire starting lineup.
Neither of these teams ended up winning it all, falling to Duke in the 1992 title game and losing to North Carolina in the '93 final. During an era with loads of exciting basketball, the iconic moment unfortunately became Webber's non-timeout in the championship loss to the Tar Heels. But the Fab Five were still legendary for college basketball. They deserve credit just for that.
8. 1984 Georgetown Hoyas
Patrick Ewing was a defensive force for the Hoyas.
Patrick Ewing vs. Hakeem Olajuwon? In a college game? I'll take that matchup.
That's what we had during the 1984 national championship game. Ewing went for 10 points and nine boards for the Hoyas. Olajuwon went for 15 and 10 for Houston. Georgetown's defense, though, was too strong and the Hoyas finished off the season at 30-3 on the way to their first title.
7. 1957 North Carolina Tar Heels
The '57 Tar Heels are one of the few undefeated champions, but that doesn't mean they weren't tested. They almost lost to Michigan State in the national semifinals when Jack Quiggle sank a half-court shot, which was eventually ruled late. UNC would win that game in triple overtime.
The next contest, Frank McGuire's Heels played Wilt Chamberlain's Kansas Jayhawks in the championship, a game when McGuire would actually employ a 5-foot-11 Tommy Kearns to take the opening tip against a kid nicknamed "The Stilt." Somehow, North Carolina held Chamberlain in check and won a triple-overtime nail-biter 54-53, in a game that screamed 1957 basketball. Four total points were scored in the first two OTs combined.
6. 1991 and 1992 Duke Blue Devils
Coack Mike Krzyzewski (center) sure turned things around in Durham.
The early '90s Blue Devils are the reason the Fab Five Michigan teams aren't higher on this list. It was the ultimate start of a dynasty, winning back-to-back titles.
Nowadays, we think of Duke as this powerhouse incapable of falling below a No. 2 seed (except for one blip on an Eric Maynor-driven radar screen). These two teams had some of the best college basketball players in history, from Christian Laettner to Grant Hill to Cherokee Parks. They put Duke on the map. Back then, the Blue Devils and coach Mike Krzyzewski didn't have the reputation they do today, even if they did go to the national championship in 1990 as well, only to get trounced by UNLV. Speaking of which ...
5. 1990 UNLV Runnin' Rebels
Jerry Tarkanian and the Runnin' Rebels dominated college hoops in 1990.
If the early-'90s Wolverines have to be lower than the early-'90s Blue Devils because of national championship results, then the same has to apply to the Rebels.
UNLV didn't just defeat Duke, either. It completely whipped Coach K & Co., wrecking the Blue Devils 103-73, the third time in six tourney games that the Rebels beat an opponent by 30 or more. Some of the best names in college basketball history come up in box scores for this team: Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony, Stacey Augmon, Anderson Hunt and David Butler coached by Jerry Tarkanian ... They helped make basketball cool, black shoes and all.
4. 1955 and 1956 San Francisco Dons
The Dons compiled a 57-1 record in back-to-back seasons.
It's safe to say a two-year stretch in which a team wins a couple of national championships and loses a total of one game is a successful run. A 28-1 season followed by a 29-0 one ... Not bad.
Those sorts of things tend to happen when you have Bill Russell on your team. Add in another First-Team All-American, K.C. Jones, who made it in 1956, and you've got yourself a juggernaut.
3. 1976 Indiana Hoosiers
Scott May (42) and the Hoosiers are the last team to finish undefeated.
The last team to go undefeated did so in a shorter season than the ones we have today. The '76 Hoosiers finished the season 32-0, an obviously dominant record, but still one with a win total that's two fewer than Kentucky's current one.
Indiana rode the coattails of eventual NBA first-round picks Scott May, Kent Benson, Bob Wilkerson and Quinn Buckner to its first title under Bob Knight, who would go on to win another two — one in 1981 and one in 1987. Seven players from the '76 team would eventually be drafted into the NBA with May going second in 1976 and Benson first in '77.
2. 1967 UCLA Bruins
Lew Alcindor (33) was a three-time NCAA tourney MVP — freshman couldn't play back then.
Here's a disclaimer: We could've just made this entire list 10 UCLA teams and no one would've complained. Sure, it would have been boring (and perfect for a UCLA blog), but would it really be that inaccurate?
From 1963 to 1975, the Bruins won 10 national championships. Ten! That's double-digit titles in only a dozen years. How does one even do such a thing? Actually, the answer to that question is quite simple. It's John Wooden.
1. 1972 and 1973 UCLA Bruins
When Bill Walton wasn't following the Grateful Dead, he was winning titles at UCLA.
That '67 Bruins team was one of four undefeated champions over the Wooden dynasty. The two most impressive came in '72 and '73, the peak years of the longest winning streak in college basketball history, one which spanned 88 games from 1971 to 1974. (The other undefeated Wooden team won the 1964 title.)
UCLA didn't just sneak into championships, either. During this 10-'ship, 12-year stretch, it lost more than four games in a single year just once, fighting through a treacherous 18-8 season in 1965-66.
18-8? How disappointing.
The '72 and '73 teams saw some of the best college basketball players in history and may have seen the most impressive championship game performance in NCAA hoops history: Bill Walton's 44-point, 13-rebound showing on 21-of-22 shooting during a 21-point win over Memphis in 1973.
Fred Katz averaged almost one point per game in fifth grade but maintains that his per-36-minute numbers were astonishing. Find more of his work at Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter at @FredKatz.
