1991–92 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team

1991–92 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball

SEC Regular season champions
NCAA Men's Division I Tournament, Lost East Final
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Ranking
Coaches	#9
AP	#6
1991–92 record	29–7 (12–4 SEC)
Head coach	Rick Pitino
Assistant coach	Herb Sendek
Assistant coach	Billy Donovan
Assistant coach	Bernadette Locke-Mattox
Home arena	Rupp Arena

Jerseys honoring the team's four seniors—"The Unforgettables"—hang in Rupp Arena

The 1991–92 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team represented the University of Kentucky in NCAA competition in the 1991–92 season. Coached by Rick Pitino, the Wildcats were, then as now, a member of the Southeastern Conference and played their home games at Rupp Arena.

This season's team is one of the most fondly remembered in UK's long basketball history. The Wildcats were coming off a two-year postseason ban due to major recruiting violations committed during the tenure of Pitino's predecessor Eddie Sutton, although the NCAA found Sutton was not personally liable. The violations mainly centered on alleged cheating by former player Eric Manuel on the ACT college entrance exam and cash payments to the guardian of another former player, Chris Mills.

The team's four seniors, three of whom were Kentucky natives, had remained loyal to the program throughout its probation, and would enter Kentucky basketball history as "The Unforgettables". They were:

Richie Farmer, a 6'0"/1.83 m shooting guard from Manchester, a small town in the state's eastern coal fields.
Deron Feldhaus, a 6'7"/2.01 m forward from Maysville, a small Ohio River town in the Bluegrass region, about an hour's drive upriver from Cincinnati.
John Pelphrey, a 6'8"/2.03 m forward from another eastern coal town, Paintsville. (Most recently the head coach at Arkansas.)
Sean Woods, the only non-Kentuckian, a 6'2"/1.88 m point guard from Indianapolis. (Now the head coach at Morehead State.)

Although the seniors were the heart and soul of the team, its biggest star was sophomore Jamal Mashburn, who would go on to become a consensus first-team All-American the following season and have a successful 12-year NBA career; he is now an NBA analyst for ESPN.

The Wildcats' run in the NCAA Tournament would end in a regional final against Duke that is often cited as the greatest college game ever played. The heavily favored Blue Devils survived an overtime thriller on Christian Laettner's last-second shot at the buzzer.

The legacy of "The Unforgettables" at UK was great enough that the UK program decided to retire their jerseys (but not their numbers) almost immediately after that game. While jersey retirement is not uncommon, it is rare for a school to bestow this honor so soon after a player's career ends.

NCAA basketball tournament

East
- Kentucky (2) 88, Old Dominion (15) 69
- Kentucky 106, Iowa State (10) 98
- Kentucky 87, Massachusetts (3) 77
- Duke (1) 104, Kentucky 103 (OT)

^[1]

Team players drafted into the NBA

Not one member of the Wildcats was claimed in the 1992 NBA Draft. ^[2]

References

↑ http://www.databasesports.com/ncaab/tourney.htm?yr=1992
↑ "1992 NBA Draft on". Databasebasketball.com. Retrieved 2012-04-30.

Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball

Venues	State College Gymnasium (1903–1914) Buell Armory Gymnasium (1910–1924) Alumni Gymnasium (1924–1950) Memorial Coliseum (1950–1976) Rupp Arena (1976–present) Joe Craft Center (practice)

Rivalries	Centre College (historical) Florida Georgetown College (historical) Indiana Louisville North Carolina Tennessee Transylvania (historical)

Culture & lore	Basketbowl Champions Classic Fabulous Five "The Shot" The Unforgettables History under Adolph Rupp The Rivalry: Red v. Blue 2011 game vs. Indiana

People	Head coaches Honored players Honorees NBA draftees Players Recruiting history

Seasons	1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16

Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics; NCAA championships in bolded italics

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