The 1996 Kentucky Wildcats are one of the best teams to ever play college basketball. You cannot say the same about the 2007 team.
Two years removed from an Elite Eight appearance, Tubby Smith’s most-talented recruiting class failed to live up to the hype. The Jamel Crawford-Ramel Bradley combo had not yet seen its best days. Randolph Morris was solid but you could not see it in the win-loss column. UK was just 22-12 in 2007. After winning the 8/9 game they lost to Kansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Tubby Smith’s final game as the Wildcats’ head coach as pressure pushed him to the Land of a Thousand Lakes, Minnesota.