After a win over Missouri, UK coach John Calipari talked about his team's recent improved play and if he had any concerns about Kevin Knox's eligibility. Jon Hale/Courier Journal
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Six days shy of the two-year anniversary of Pearl Harbor and almost two years before World War II would end, the UK men’s basketball team opened its 1943-44 season without a senior on the roster for just the fourth time in program history.
“The team nickname – Rupp’s Rifles – used last year and in previous seasons with reference to University of Kentucky basketball clubs, now has a lot in common with “Annie” in that once-popular song because – They don’t live here anymore,” the Courier-Journal’s Lexington bureau wrote on the day of the 1943-44 season opener.