The Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team is a college basketball team representing the University of Kentucky. Kentucky has both the most all-time wins (2101) and the highest all-time winning percentage in the history of college basketball (.763). Kentucky's all-time record currently stands at 2101–654. Kentucky also leads all schools in total NCAA tournament appearances with 52, is first in NCAA tournament wins with 111, and ranks second to UCLA in NCAA championships with 8. In addition to these titles, Kentucky also has won the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in both 1946 and 1976, making them the only school to win multiple NCAA and NIT championships. The Wildcats have played in a record 52 NCAA Tournaments, in a record 157 NCAA Tournament games, have a NCAA record 39 Sweet-16 appearances, and a NCAA record 34 Elite-8 appearances. Further, Kentucky has played in 15 Final Fours (tied with Duke for 3rd place all time), and has 11 NCAA Championship Game appearances (second all time to UCLA), winning 8 NCAA Championships (second all time to UCLA). Kentucky also leads all schools with 56 20-win seasons, 13 30-win seasons, and is the only school with 5 different NCAA Championship coaches (Rupp, Hall, Pitino, Smith, Calipari).
The Wildcats play their home games in Rupp Arena, a facility named for their former coach, Adolph Rupp, an alumnus of the University of Kansas. Rupp Arena is the largest arena in the United States built specifically for basketball, with an official capacity of 23,500. As a result, Kentucky consistently ranks first in the nation in home game attendance. The team's huge fan base is often referred to as the "Big Blue Nation" or the "Big Blue Mist", the latter because the fans typically engulf tournament and neutral-site venues. Likewise, the team itself is often referred to as the "Big Blue". In the 1980s the team was credited with popularizing Midnight Madness.
On April 1, 2009, John Calipari was formally announced as Kentucky's 22nd men's head basketball coach, replacing Billy Gillispie.
Read more about Kentucky Wildcats Men's Basketball: Kentucky in The Louisville Metro Area, Coaches, Retired Jerseys, Wildcats in The NBA, Memorable Teams, Kentucky Basketball Cumulative All Time Statistics
Famous quotes containing the words kentucky, men and/or basketball:
“He believes without reservation that Kentucky is the garden spot of the world, and is ready to dispute with anyone who questions his claim. In his enthusiasm for his State he compares with the Methodist preacher whom Timothy Flint heard tell a congregation that “Heaven is a Kentucky of a place.””
—For the State of Kentucky, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“They are more than men at the outset of their battles; at the end they are less than the women.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few things in common, but the most important is the possibility of transcendence. The opposite is labor. In writing, every writer knows when he or she is laboring to achieve an effect. You want to get from here to there, but find yourself willing it, forcing it. The equivalent in basketball is aiming your shot, a kind of strained and usually ineffective purposefulness. What you want is to be in some kind of flow, each next moment a discovery.”
—Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)