19 points in the second half? Fewest since...

19 is the fewest points in any half since we scored 16 in the first half against West Virginia in 2008 (a game we came back to win).

And the fewest points in a second half since scoring 18 on our way to losing 46-45 at Michigan State in 2000.

Defensively, of course we had great success, only giving up 18 points to Georgia in the second half. We've topped that in two different first halves this year - 14 points by Radford in the first half, 15 by Penn State.

If I'm not mistaken, you have to go back to the same 2008 game against West Virginia to find a lower second half point total by an opponent (17).

To find a previous game where UK won in spite of scoring less than 19 points in a second half, you have to go back 31 years. UK did it twice in 1981:

12/29/81 against Notre Dame - Won 34-28 in OT after scoring 18 in the first half and only 5 in the second. 5 points is still our record low for any half in any game.

1/10/81 against Tennessee - Won 48-47 in spite of scoring 18 in the second half.

The relevant link from Jon Scott's site: http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/gamehalflowukoverall.html

Head-to-head records of college basketball "blue bloods"

(updated at the end of calendar year 2016)

The top six programs in college basketball history are almost universally recognized among historians as: Kentucky, North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, Duke and Indiana.  The first tier is clearly UK, UNC and UCLA, with the other three lagging a bit behind.

Here is a look at their head-to-head results, listed by winning percentage:

1) UNC .558 (177-140)
2) UK .557 (88-70)
3) IU .481 (51-55)
4) Duke .466 (139-159)
5) UCLA .449 (31-38)
6) KU .354 (29-53)

The breakdown...

UK is:
32-25 against IU
22-7 against KU
15-23 against UNC
12-9 against Duke
7-6 against UCLA

UNC is:
134-108 against Duke
23-15 against UK
8-3 against UCLA
6-5 against KU
6-9 against IU

IU is:
25-32 against UK
9-6 against UNC
8-6 against Kansas
6-6 against UCLA
3-5 against Duke

Duke is:
108-134 against UNC
10-6 against UCLA
9-12 against UK
7-4 against KU
5-3 against IU

UCLA is:
10-7 against KU
6-6 against IU
6-10 against Duke
6-7 against UK
3-8 against UNC

KU is:
6-8 against IU
7-10 against UCLA
7-22 against UK
5-6 against UNC
4-7 against Duke

Notes:
- UNC has a winning record against everyone except IU (6-9)
- UK has a winning record against everyone except UNC (15-23)
- Obviously the most matchups in any series is UNC/Duke (242 games)
- Kansas has a losing record against every other blue blood
- UCLA's only winning record is against Kansas (10-7)
- UofL (probably the 7th best team all-time - although they rated above IU in my most recent analysis) has losing records against all the top six teams shown here.  As of the end of calendar year 2016, the Cardinals are 5-7 against Duke, 16-34 against UK, 8-10 against IU, 5-11 against UNC, 5-6 against Kansas, and 7-15 against UCLA.

The blue bloods of college basketball

Consulting a variety of sources I was able to compile rankings among NCAA men's basketball teams in the following categories:

All-time wins
NCAA tournament appearances
NCAA tournament wins
NCAA Final Fours
NCAA titles

By averaging the rankings through the end of the 2011-2012 season, you get the following output:

1 - Kentucky - average ranking of 1.6
2 - UNC - 2.2
3 - UCLA - 3.6
4 - KU - 4.2
4 - Duke - 4.4
6 - Indiana - 7.0
7 - Louisville - 8.4
8 - Syracuse - 10.4
9 - UConn - 14.2
10 - Cincinnati - 15.2
11 - Michigan State - 16.8
12 - Arizona - 16.8
13 - Utah - 17
14 - Georgetown - 17.6
15 - Arkansas - 17.8
16 - Villanova - 18.6
17 - Ohio State - 19.2
18 - Oklahoma State - 19.8
19 - Marquette - 22.8
20 - NC State - 24.2


UK has a record of 149-96 against the rest of the top 10.
UK has a record of 227-139 against the rest of the top 20.


The teams UK has beaten up on, among the all-time top 20:
Kansas 21-6
Louisville 30-15
Syracuse 8-3
Cincinnati 27-10
Utah 9-2
Arkansas 25-8
Villanova 6-1

UK also has winning records against UCLA, Duke, Indiana, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Ohio State and NC State.  UK is 7-7 against Marquette.

The only losing records for UK against the teams in the all-time top 20:
UNC 13-22
UConn 1-3
Arizona 2-3
Georgetown 0-2

Teams with top credentials in at least one area but lacking either longevity or tournament success:
Temple (6th in wins)
St. John's (7th in wins)
Notre Dame (9th in wins)
Penn (10th in wins)
Washington (14th in wins)
BYU (15th in wins)
Western Kentucky (16th in wins)
Purdue (17th in wins)
Florida (t-8th in titles)
Texas (t-11th in appearances)
Illinois (t-15th in appearances)

Overall, I think this system does a good job assessing each school's relative merits.  Most people (with any historical knowledge of the game) would subjectively name the same top 6 that were produced here.  Below the top 6, you see a mixture of teams with upward momentum (Syracuse, UConn, Mich. St., Ohio St.) and downward (Utah, Arkansas, NC State).  Most importantly, UK is #1.

UK headed back to #1...a few AP poll statistics

This week should be UK's 92nd appearance at #1 in the AP poll.  That total trails UCLA (134), Duke (122) and UNC (108).  So to those who say "I don't want to be #1 until April," I understand the sentiment but it'd be nice to catch up somewhat in this statistic.  Also, fear not: UK has a solid 152-25 record all-time at #1, which is an 85.9% winning rate.

Obviously being #1 makes us even more of a target.  The teams who've knocked us off our perch most often:
Vandy (4 times)
St. Louis (3)
Georgia Tech (3)
Indiana (2)
Mississippi State (2)

Title seasons during which UK was ranked #1: 1949, 1951, 1978, 1996 (but not in '48, '58 or '98)

By my count this is the 9th different season during which UK lost and then regained the #1 ranking.  Three of the previous times, the ranking was lost without an actual loss on the court...pollsters just got tired of the Cats, I suppose.  And three of the previous eight occurrences were during title years - '51, '78, and '96.

This is the 18th season and 24th different calendar year with UK rated as #1.

Thanks again to Jon Scott's site (http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/statistics.html) as one of the main resources for questions like this.  I also consulted collegepollarchive.com for this post.

Anthony Davis: Sultan of Swat

With 67 blocks in his first 15 collegiate games, Anthony Davis will crush Kentucky's single-season record (held by Melvin Turpin in '82-83 and Andre Riddick in '93-94) of 83.

In fact it's likely that he'll make it into the UK career top 10 in just one season of work.  That would require only 136.

He has virtually no shot at David Robinson's single-season mark of 207, but he'll finish in elite company nonetheless.