The Kentucky Wildcats narrowly escaped another attempt to derail their perfect season on Tuesday night, edging the LSU Tigers 71-69 in Baton Rouge. With that win, the Wildcats now sit at 24-0, with just seven regular season games remaining before the SEC tournament begins. Kentucky head coach John Calipari has arguably one of the deepest teams in college basketball history, and the Wildcats have spent most of this season as the nation’s unanimous No.1 team.
Out of the seven games remaining, only No. 24 Arkansas seems to pose any significant threat or challenge to Calipari’s young team, and the odds of at least a perfect regular season now seem very high. But what about a perfect run through the post-season?
The Wildcats have been annihilating nearly every opponent they’ve faced so far. Kentucky has a 32-point win over No. 8 Kansas, a 12-point win over a Texas team that has been ranked for most of the year, a 14-point win over No.12 North Carolina, and an 8-point win over No.9 Louisville to go along with several other blowout victories over lesser foes both in and out of conference.
No college basketball team has finished the entire season undefeated since the Indiana Hoosiers accomplished the feat in 1976, with three other teams failing to do so since then after entering the NCAA tournament still undefeated.
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The Wichita State Shockers were 34-0 last season before falling in the second round to, ironically enough, the Wildcats in the second round. The Shockers were the first team since the late Jerry Tarkanian’s UNLV Runnin’ Rebels team in 1991 to enter the NCAA tournament unbeaten, with the Indiana State Sycamores, led by a young Larry Bird, preceding them in 1979.
The 1976 Indiana Hoosiers are one of only four schools to ever achieve a perfect season, along with the UCLA Bruins, North Carolina Tar Heels, and San Francisco Dons. The Bruins acheived an astounding four perfect seasons under legendary head coach John Wooden in 1964, 1967, 1972, and 1973.
There has certainly been an increase in parity in the NCAA since the 1970’s, but perhaps the biggest reason we haven’t seen a team pull off the feat in 39 years is because of the current era of one-and-done players. It’s a tough task for any coach in this day and age to be able to develop any kind of longstanding chemistry when your best players are constantly leaving early, only to be replaced by more players who will likely do the same, if their talent is anywhere near to being equal.
John Calipari has turned the Wildcats into a feeder school of sorts for the NBA, as he has made a habit of signing recruiting classes full of big-name prospects that only intend to be in the program for as short amount of time as possible. Calipari has had at least one player selected as a lottery pick in the NBA Draft every year since he took over the job in 2009, and he seems to reload each season in turn.
So what are the odds of Kentucky’s regular season ending at 31-0? According to KenPom, the Wildcats now have a 94 percent chance when you average the percentages of each game out.
KenPom’s predicted scores and percentages are as follows:
South Carolina W 69-52 (96%)
At Tennessee W 67-54 (92%)
Auburn W 80-55 (99%)
At Mississippi State W 69-52 (96%)
Arkansas W 79-62 (94%)
At Georgia W 67-58 (83%)
Florida W 66-52 (95%)
So, assuming the Wildcats make it through the SEC tournament, and enter the NCAA tournament with their expected No.1 seed. What other teams, according to most sportsbooks, have the best shot of finishing the season as champions? Kentucky is the overwhelming favorite currently with the odds set at 6/5.
Here are the top 10 teams below them, in order of best odds:
- Duke: 8/1
- Virginia: 8/1
- Gonzaga: 9/1
- Wisconsin: 9/1
- Arizona: 12/1
- Notre Dame: 20/1
- Kansas: 22/1
- Louisville: 25/1
- Utah: 25/1
- Villanova: 25/1
Also one thing to keep in mind: Kentucky made it to the championship game last year as a No.8 seed, and was defeated by No. 7 Connecticut.
With the unselfish, defensive-minded play that the insanely-deep Wildcats have displayed all season, it should surprise nobody to see them make it to make it to the April 6th NCAA title game in Indianapolis. So which of the other top teams and No.1 seed contenders stand a good shot against them should they meet?
Gonzaga. – The Bulldogs are undefeated in conference play this year, and possess only one loss, a 66-63 overtime thriller to No. 7 Arizona on the road back on Dec. 6. Gonzaga owns impressive nonconference wins against teams such as the SMU Mustangs, Georgia Bulldogs, St. John’s Red Storm, UCLA Bruins, and Memphis Tigers, to go along with conference wins over strong bubble teams such as the BYU Cougars and St. Mary’s Gaels. The Bulldogs earned the lone non-Kentucky No.1 vote in this week’s ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, and are a few missed shots away from being undefeated themselves.
Wisconsin. – The Badgers have picked up where they left off last season, having returned a good portion of their team from the unit that nearly defeated Kentucky in the Final Four last year. Wisconsin big man Frank Kaminsky has been a Naismith candidate all season, and possess just the kind of skill set that could give the Wildcats problems in the post, on both ends of the floor.
Even with possible challenges looming against teams such as those, the outlook for Kentucky looks bright. If they can emulate the type of play they’ve displayed all season in the upcoming tournament, they are a very solid bet to finish with a ‘zero’ in the loss column, and will go down as perhaps the best college basketball team in history…leaving Calipari to reload once again and give it another shot next season.
Odds are that he’ll do just that.
