UK's 1995-96 season in review, Part I

This college basketball season marks the anniversaries of four memorable championship seasons for local schools: Indiana in 1975-76; Indiana in 1980-81; Louisville in 1985-86; and Kentucky in 1995-96. Throughout this season wave3.com will take occasional looks back at those national title seasons for the Hoosiers, Cardinals and Wildcats. 

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - The University of Kentucky men's basketball team ended the 1994-95 season not with a thud, but with a dud.

The second-ranked Wildcats shot 28 percent from the field - including 19.4 percent from 3-point range - in their 74-61 loss to No. 4 North Carolina in the Southeast Regional final in Birmingham, Ala.

Rodrick Rhodes epitomized the Wildcats' struggles. The junior forward went 2-for-10 from the field, including 0 of 6 from 3-point range.

Shortly after the season ended Rhodes left Lexington. Whether it was his choice, or that of coach Rick Pitino, is still debatable, regardless Rhodes was on his way (eventually he transferred to Southern California after a brief flirtation with the NBA). With Rhodes gone, UK had an open scholarship and a McDonald's All-American (Ron Mercer) to give it to.

Despite the loss of Rhodes (12.9 ppg), the Wildcats were still set to return seven of its top eight scorers in '95-96. That septet included senior guard Tony Delk (16.7 ppg), senior forward Walter McCarty (10.5 ppg), junior guard Jeff Sheppard (8.3 ppg), senior center Mark Pope (8.2 ppg), sophomore forward Antoine Walker (7.8 ppg), senior forward Jared Prickett (6.7 ppg) and junior guard Anthony Epps (6.7 ppg).

Plus, they were adding Ohio State transfer Derek Anderson as well as Mercer.

Before the '95-96 season began UK took an August trip to Italy. The five-game exhibition series produced four victories and one running joke.

As the not-so-true story went Pitino, a Catholic, got an audience with Pope John Paul II when the Wildcats were there. During their meeting Pitino asked to kiss the pontiff's ring. Then, the Pope asked to reciprocate. He was disappointed, however, to find that Pitino didn't have a ring to kiss. The highly-successful coach was still in search of that elusive championship ring.

Pitino, of course, had led tiny Providence College and spunky point guard Billy Donovan to the Final Four in '87 before taking the New York Knicks' head-coaching job. He returned to college coaching a few years later, however, to rebuild the once mighty Kentucky program that had made a memorable appearance ("Kentucky's Shame") on a Sports Illustrated cover after it was placed on probation by the NCAA.

In just his third season Pitino had the Wildcats within 2.1 seconds of the Final Four. What happened next is seared in the minds of UK fans everywhere. 
Christian Laettner caught Grant Hill's three-quarter-court baseball pass, dribbled, turned and buried a 17-foot jumper - but it might as well have been in a dagger into the hearts of Wildcat fans - at the buzzer to lift Duke to a 104-103 overtime win in the '92 East Regional final.

Led by program savior Jamal Mashburn, Kentucky got to the Final Four the following season but lost in OT to Michigan. UK's '93-94 season ended with a surprising second-round loss to Marquette in the NCAA Tournament before the Wildcats were ousted by Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace and the Tar Heels in '95.

Suddenly some (especially those rabid Kentucky fans who hadn't seen a national title since '78) wondered if Pitino, the coach who had promised to take UK back to the promised land of college basketball, could win the big one.

However with so many returnees, as well as Anderson and Mercer coming in, the '95-96 season was setting up to be Pitino's best chance to win his first national championship (and ring), and bring UK its first title in 18 years.

Perfect season? Not so fast

UK began the 1995-96 season with extremely high expectations. The Wildcats were an overwhelming No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason poll. There was even some talk that they could go undefeated through the entire season.

That wouldn't last long, though.

Kentucky opened the season on Nov. 24, 1995 - four days after Princess Diana admitted she cheated on Prince Charles in a television interview and two days after the release of a little movie called Toy Story - against No. 14 Maryland in the Tip-Off Classic in Springfield, Mass.

UK rolled to a 96-84 win over the Terrapins behind big games from Pope and Delk. Pope, whom Pitino had been especially hard on during the team's Italy tour, tallied a team-high 26 points and snared six rebounds. Meanwhile Delk, like Pope, hit 8 of 11 shots on his way to 21 points.

Four days later the Wildcats met No. 5 Massachusetts in the Great Eight at the Palace in Auburn Hills. It was another made-for-TV matchup to start the season for UK. It was Pitino against his alma mater and a coach that some were already calling "the next Rick Pitino," John Calipari.

The two schools had played a memorable game in the '92 NCAA Tournament. UK's 87-77 win, sparked by a second-half technical foul on Cal for being out of the coach's box(?!), set up the Wildcats' game against Duke.

This time around, though, the Minutemen had something UK didn't - Marcus Camby. The 6-foot-11 center was a one-man wrecking crew, posting 32 points, nine rebounds and blocking five shots in UMass' surprising 92-82 win.

The Minutemen never trailed, but had to work hard to knock off the Wildcats. UMass's four other starters, all of whom played at least 29 minutes against Kentucky's relentless pressure, also scored in double digits.

Delk led UK with 21 points while McCarty added 17 and Walker tallied 12. Meanwhile Pope struggled mightily against the much more athletic Camby with a five-point, four-foul performance in 22 minutes.

Kentucky bounces back against Bobby (Knight)

The Wildcats' we'll-see-how-good-we-are-right-away early-season schedule continued four days later, when they met Indiana in Indianapolis. More than 41,000 fans turned out to see UK hold off the Hoosiers 89-82.

Walker came off the bench to score 24 points in only 26 minutes and Anderson added 18 to help combat 28 points by flat-top wearing, hot-shooting Brian Evans.

Kentucky, which dropped to No. 5 in the AP poll released Dec. 4, returned to action two days later, hosting Wisconsin-Green Bay. UK jumped out to a 22-point lead in the first half, but the Phoenix wouldn't go away. W-GB cut its deficit to 14 at halftime and eventually lost by just 12 (74-62).

Afterward Pitino bemoaned his team's defense, or lack there of.

"Our attitude toward defense is not good," the UK coach said, according to The Courier-Journal. "We're getting no senior leadership on defense...Tony Delk couldn't spell defense."

Pitino also praised the play of Phoenix forward Jeff Nordgaard, who bulled his way to 29 points.

"He's all blood and guts," he said. "If our people played with that, we'd be unstoppable."

In the win five Wildcats, including four starters, scored in double digits led by Delk's 17 points. The only starter not to reach double figures was Epps, who Pitino had inserted into the starting lineup. The Marion County High School graduate responded with seven points, five assists and three rebounds in 16 minutes. It would turn out to be a key move for the Wildcats as Epps was the pass-first point guard that the Wildcats needed.

Three days later, on Dec. 9 (the same day that Ohio State running back Eddie George wins the Heisman Trophy) the Wildcats hosted 16th-ranked Georgia Tech. Bobby Cremins' squad was led by forward Matt Harpring and freshman point guard Stephon Marbury.

Kentucky dominated, winning 83-60. Five players scored in double figures led by Walker's 16. Freshman point guard Wayne Turner came off the bench for his best game to date, posting eight points, three assists and three rebounds. Meanwhile Marbury finished with 17 points, but was swarmed by the Wildcats. He was 4 for 9 from the field and had six turnovers against zero assists.

A week later, after finals week, Kentucky blasted overmatched and outmanned Morehead State. It led 50-14 at halftime and ran away to a 96-32 win. Walker led all scorers with 22 points while Delk added 18 and Anderson tallied 15 off the bench in UK's first game without Prickett, who had suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Three days later, on Dec. 19, now fourth-ranked UK played its annual game in Freedom Hall against Marshall. The Thundering Herd were led by former Pitino protege, Billy Donovan. The Wildcats didn't take it easy on the former UK assistant, however. They ran out to a 43-12 lead, scoring on 18 of their first 19 possessions, on their way to a 118-99 win.

Pope paced six in double figures with 21 points while Walker added 20. Kentucky had 31 assists on its 44 field goals. Epps had 12 of those dimes, to go along with six points and six rebounds.

UK's next foe was a familiar one, its archrival Louisville.

Cream Game 

The Cardinals had upset then-fifth-ranked UK 88-86 on New Year's Day 1995 thanks to Samaki Walker's triple-double. Three hundred fifty-six days later the outcome was different. Much different.

Delk missed his first six shots, but hit 10 of his final 11 on his way to a game-high 30 points to lead the Wildcats to an 89-66 win.

Walker added a double-double (20 points, 12 rebounds) while Epps and McCarty added 14 and 12 points respectively.

Alvin Sims led Louisville with 23 points while Walker and DeJuan Wheat added 17 points apiece.

It was an equally big day for UK off the court, as the school's football program got a commitment from the nation's  No. 1-rated high school quarterback, Tim Couch.

Kentucky capped off the '95 portion of its schedule with trip to New York City for the ECAC Holiday Festival. The now second-ranked Wildcats won it easily. They dismantled Rider 90-65 on Dec. 27 behind 27 points from Walker and 24 from Delk. They followed that up with a 106-79 rout of Iona in the final. Delk tallied 29 points, hitting 9 of 12 shots (including 6 of 7 3-pointers), to lead five in double figures for Kentucky, which shot 55.6 percent from the field.

After 10 games the Wildcats were 9-1 and ranked No. 2 in the nation. The only team to beat them was the only team ranked ahead of them (undefeated UMass).

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