Rank our champions

[UK fan 1989]

Where would you rank our 8 national championship teams?
1.1996
2.2012
3.1978
4.1998
​5.1948
6.1951
7.1949
8.1958

[SportsFan]

I tend to agree with your top 4, and I'm not qualified to comment on the bottom 4 (before I was alive).

I will say this, though.... '78 and 2012 are pretty close. I think I could make a solid argument that the '78 team was every bit as good as the 2012 team.

[KCKUKFan]

I'll rank the ones I've been alive to see:

96
12
98

[Pobilly]

1978 Men amongst boys.
1996 Pure Pitino Talent and style.
2012 Very good team but not the 2 above.
1998 Just a good all around group that played hard.
1949 Fabulous Five
1948 Fabulous Five first year
1958 Fiddling Five
1951 no Name team

[George]

I'll rank the ones I've been alive to see:

96
12
98

I’d have said this verbatim if I’d gotten here first.

[DA#23]

I’d have said this verbatim if I’d gotten here first.

Same for me.

[SportsFan]

That's kind of sad that so many regulars aren't even familiar with the 1978 team 😳

[UKWildcats1987]

1978 Men amongst boys.
1996 Pure Pitino Talent and style.
2012 Very good team but not the 2 above.
1998 Just a good all around group that played hard.
1949 Fabulous Five
1948 Fabulous Five first year
1958 Fiddling Five
1951 no Name team

2012 has the record for most wins n a season for a college basketball team. That's very very amazing.

I think we all agree 96, 2012 and 78 are top 3 in some order though.

[40bill]

1978 Men amongst boys.
1996 Pure Pitino Talent and style.
2012 Very good team but not the 2 above.
1998 Just a good all around group that played hard.
1949 Fabulous Five
1948 Fabulous Five first year
1958 Fiddling Five
1951 no Name team

The top 4 are the ones I agree 100% on.
the others i never had the privilege to see.
to sound heretical that 98 team could have given the 12 team more than they wanted on a given night.

[Pobilly]

Now if we name the final four teams that did not win it all would be good as well. There were some really good teams that could not pull it out, including the Runts, 75 team my all time favorite, 97 team, 14 team, 15 team and such. We have had some really good teams that were not lifting a championship trophy, 54 team as well 25-0 (54 team) did no play in the tourney at all due to NCAA not allowing 3 players to play in tourney including Cliff Hagen. That team only had like 1 maybe 2 single digit games all year and defeated the NCAA champs at UK by 13 early in the season.

[George]

2012 has the record for most wins n a season for a college basketball team. That's very very amazing.

How’s that possible when the ‘15 team didn’t lose until the Final Four?

[SportsFan]

How’s that possible when the ‘15 team didn’t lose until the Final Four?

They're both tied (2012 and 2015) with 38 wins each, which is the record... difference being the 2012 team won the national championship.

[WeWant9]

That's kind of sad that so many regulars aren't even familiar with the 1978 team 😳

It was before my time, but several Christmas ago I bought the 78 title game dvd for my dad (he was at UK for it). It was pretty cool to watch ball from that era, no 3 line was hard to get use to though. Goose seemed like one of those players that would dominate in any era, he was a baller.

[EKYCat]

That's kind of sad that so many regulars aren't even familiar with the 1978 team 😳

I was born in 1982. I know the names of Robey, Macy, Goose, Lee... just wasn't around to see them play.

[40bill]

It was before my time, but several Christmas ago I bought the 78 title game dvd for my dad (he was at UK for it). It was pretty cool to watch ball from that era, no 3 line was hard to get use to though. Goose seemed like one of those players that would dominate in any era, he was a baller.

Givens was one of these guys that you watched and until that 44 in the title you would think 'nice game, 7 or 8 points' then see the line for 17. I was at one of those games...just a really smooth playing guy.