Yea it's all coming full circle. Going to be so weird Cal in red next year. BBN will miss them just wanted Cal to win more the past few years been rough for UK/Cal unfortunately. 😢
This was my sophomore year at UMass and I was also a longtime Syracuse fan.. very memorable final 4! I think this Kentucky team was better than any national championship team since. I mean half their bench won the title 2 years later and the year in between they were runners up losing in ot in the final. Just an insanely loaded squad
@@wramsey2656 Yep...that probably would've been a threepeat for Kentucky...Also, don't forget that UK Also lost Jeff Sheppard for that season as well. If they have those two, it's probably three titles in a row for the Cats.
Was a crime that this was the semifinal game instead of the final - these two teams were either ranked #1 or #2 all season long and were pretty clearly the best teams in the country while you had a 4 vs. 5 matchup on the other side. It took another 6 or 7 years until they ranked the #1 seeds to make sure that the #1 and #2 teams never met in a semifinal again.
The top 2 teams rarely even make the final four together these days, so much parity with the one and dones. The era of great college basketball is over.
Connecticut was the presumed #1 overall seed that season, Kentucky dropped to the presumed #2 overall seed after losing the SEC Championship Game and UMass was the #3 overall seed
felt fortunate that the favorite won itthat season, which was Kenticky. Great teams, great basketball that year was great that Kentucky won the title..@@DanielSong39
1996 was a banner year for college hoops. Soooo many exceptional teams that had the shitty luck of being stuck with each other in a nutty year. -UConn might have had - arguably - their best team ever that year. They got bounced by Mississippi State who had a blah season, but was like preseason #3 or #4... --Wake Forest had Tim fucking Duncan. -Georgetown might have had one of their best teams ever with Iverson. Again - not taking shit away from UMass or Kentucky - it adds to the legacy, but man.... soooo many scary teams that year.
And Georgia Tech had Stephon Marbury, Drew Barry, and Matt Harpring. Watching that Kentucky vs Georgia Tech game early in the regular season was fun for the first half, then Kentucky pulled away with their depth in the second half. 1996 was such a great year for college basketball with so much future NBA all stars and talent. Probably will never see another season like it.
Watching Kentucky beat wake forest and Tim Duncan in the tournament was the epidemy of how great Kentucky was that year defensively. I've never seen another team before or after since that was so in tune defensively as a team. They would double Tim Duncan in the post relentlessly and get back to their man at not a high level, but an elite level. 1996 Kentucky IMO is the best college basketball team of all time.
Helluva game from two really great teams. UMASS had the POY in Camby, a freak force of nature in college. Plus, a great backcourt, lots of maturity and great chemistry. UK was loaded as hell, and has as much experience and chemistry. This was the real title game, as others have said.
Great memories. I was fortunate enough to get to see this UK team play in the regional finals up in Minneapolis. They obliterated Keith Van Horn/Utah and then Tim Duncan/Wake Forest. To see them up close was unreal. Physical as hell. Perfect execution. I was really worried about meeting either Georgetown or UMass . On the ride leaving out of Minneapolis we heard that UMass had won, which set this game in motion. We talked about that matchup the whole way home back to Kentucky. Great experience. What’s hard to believe is that this has been almost 30 years ago. Doesn’t seem possible .
"GOOD BLOCK OUT BY POPE ON CAMBY , RIGHT THERE!" Our coach if know you one thing about him, its how he played MARCUS CAMBY THE NCAA PLAYER OF YEAR. Down in simi finale charging and POPE PLAYED LIKE A ALL-AMERICAN.
"Clutch" is what the announcer say at end speaking about Pope's contribution. In the next game Pope was up against the guy many said was the player of year.. we have a clutch Coach something we've not had for 15 yrs.
1996 Kentucky was the greatest team ive ever seen. They were like a well tuned machine, they played elite team defense, relentless pressure, caused turnovers like crazy, and tony delk was a sniper from 3. To top it off 1996 was one of the deepest years in college basketball history with soo many great teams. Georgetown with allen Iverson, Wake Forest with Tim Duncan, Georgia tech with Stephon Marbury, Uconn had a really good team that year, there was some really good teams. This umass team coached by John Calipari was elite, and the NBA draft that year was one of the best in league history. 1996 Kentucky is the best team of all time. They still hold the NCAA tournament record for point differential, the only team to come close to that kind of tournament dominance was UConn here recently.
Grew up in Bowling Green and loved WKU as a local team but UK will always be my favorite team of any sport along my my Yankees. The Prince/Bogan era was my favorite I have almost every game from 2000-2003. We underperformed almost every big game and shot bad FT% and 3pt. I still loved watching Bogans take 3’s anyway. This was a couple years before my time but love to watch. Funny who coached Umass. Lol
This Kentucky team lost only 2 games all season, and both of the teams that beat them made it to the Final Four. UMass ranked #5 at the time beat then #1 ranked Kentucky in the Cats second game of the year, 92-82, at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Kentucky would then run off 27 straight wins before Mississippi State beat them in the finals of the SEC Tournament 84-73 in the Louisiana Superdome, a loss that Coach Rick Pitino would later say may have been the best thing to happen to this team at the time. Pitino said the loss, in his opinion, was the difference between his team probably going into the NCAA Tournament cocky, over-confident, and taking some of the teams they faced in the tournament for granted. Pitino said though the UK fan base wasn't happen about the finals loss in the SEC Tournament, he was knew a loss of that magnitude right before the start of the NCAA Tournament would give all the ammuntion he needed to get the team refocussed in pratice and dedicated to the task at hand..............winning it all. Still, strange though as good as this UK team was that both of their losses were both by double digits.
That Kentucky bench though, going 12-13 players deep. UMass was about 6-8 deep. Remember a reporter describing Kentucky jumping around at the end of the game like the end of an exhibition, while Umass looked like they just got through a marathon.
I guess we'll never know. Looks like 100% goaltending to me. The ball was definitely going to hit the rim--it's not like it was going to clearly be an airball.
I remember this game, and the broadcast, a classic and pretty much everyone knew Kentucky was almost certainly going to win this game, they played basically like an NBA team that tournament just destroying every opponent left and right. This was much closer then everyone expected, but it was almost a done deal that Kentucky was going to raise the trophy Monday night.
You must not remember well then. UMass was the #1 team and had beaten Kentucky earlier in the season 92-82. UMass also had the player of the year and #2 pick in the NBA draft, Marcus Camby. There were many experts that picked UMass to win this game and as a Kentucky fan, UMass was the only team that worried me. They could play the same style as us and had the best player on the court. UMass was no pushover for this Kentucky team like the 5 other opponents they faced in the 1996 tournament.
I was in a tournament pool at my job that year. I drew 1 loss UMASS. Easily the 2nd best team that year. And l knew they had NO CHANCE to beat KY. A second time. That's how good they were.
oh man billy packer your brilliant the briton foul that put out the game and you could still be playing he wasnt so strong.yea and i could have been the 100 yard dash champ if i wasnt so fast haha
That's bullshit of course that camby shot was goaltender would have changed that game, Umass was the ultimate underdog who destroyed every team including Dunkans Wake forest
I dont know.. I do know that they went back to their home country of puerto rico and started their career there... They had a great career in pr, exiting to watch!
I miss the days when the public address announcer did the player introductions /starting lineups. Now it's so lame...lets meet the west region champs....dumb music..."we are Kentucky!" More dumb music and players dancing on neon colored glass ugh
So nobody is going to mention that the only reason Kentucky won was the BS flop by Sheppard. Donta Bright fouled out simply because he was stronger. Not having him on the floor in the last 2:30 was the difference in the game. UMass should have won.
@@tonystrinko7298 Yeah, hard to break everything down to one call...I'm sure there were fouls Kentucky wanted that they didn't get...You could also say something like "If Umass didn't turn the ball over so much, they would've won..." But, UK was just better on this day, and had an overall better roster. One call definitely doesn't change the outcome of a game.
UK won because they were a little better...Umass had sooooo many TOs, and UK more or less shut down Travieso, who was so key to their offense. One call didn't decide the outcome, no matter when it was. Travieso getting two fouls in 15 seconds (both of which were legit calls) and all Umass' TOs vs. the press were bigger reasons UK won...Also, UK was much deeper, which was also a factor
@@elliemyers6435 not having Donta Bright on the floor for UMass in the last 2 and a half minutes sealed their fate. It just sucks that he fouled out on a call that usually isn’t made. Not taking anything away from UK.
12:21 Three Kentucky head coaches in this game.
Yea it's all coming full circle. Going to be so weird Cal in red next year. BBN will miss them just wanted Cal to win more the past few years been rough for UK/Cal unfortunately. 😢
This was my sophomore year at UMass and I was also a longtime Syracuse fan.. very memorable final 4! I think this Kentucky team was better than any national championship team since. I mean half their bench won the title 2 years later and the year in between they were runners up losing in ot in the final. Just an insanely loaded squad
If Derrick Anderson had not ripped his ACL in 1997 i think they would have beaten AZ in the title game. Historical team i agree.
😂
X😊Dawgs
@@wramsey2656 Yep...that probably would've been a threepeat for Kentucky...Also, don't forget that UK Also lost Jeff Sheppard for that season as well. If they have those two, it's probably three titles in a row for the Cats.
Had Derrick Anderson not been injured we would have won three national championships in a row!
Jeff Sheppard also did not play all year! Huge loss
@@bigblue2real Scott Padgett did not play in '96! Man those guys were loaded
I was at UMASS from 93-97. It was the glory days
u lucky dog
Billy Packer with some foreshadowing saying that Calipari looks like he is coming to coach Kentucky. 13 years later he was right .
Dont forget this team, without Derek Anderson AND Jeff Sheppard barely lost the 97 title game in overtime. Could have been 3 in a row!
Thanks for posting this great game! BBN411
Was a crime that this was the semifinal game instead of the final - these two teams were either ranked #1 or #2 all season long and were pretty clearly the best teams in the country while you had a 4 vs. 5 matchup on the other side. It took another 6 or 7 years until they ranked the #1 seeds to make sure that the #1 and #2 teams never met in a semifinal again.
The top 2 teams rarely even make the final four together these days, so much parity with the one and dones. The era of great college basketball is over.
2002 Kansas was #1 and Maryland was #2 and they faced off in a National Semifinal with a 5 seed vs 2 seed in the other Semifinal.
That happens all the time. You can’t predict upsets. UConn was as good as both these teams, but they were stunned by Miss St. in the sweet 16.
Connecticut was the presumed #1 overall seed that season, Kentucky dropped to the presumed #2 overall seed after losing the SEC Championship Game and UMass was the #3 overall seed
felt fortunate that the favorite won itthat season, which was Kenticky. Great teams, great basketball that year was great that Kentucky won the title..@@DanielSong39
Heavyweight match of the times, UK was simply loaded from top to bottom and proved they were the best UK team in History!
This was the de facto championship game.
Syracuse was just as competitive in the final
@@DanielSong39 Nope.
@@travismurell5228 They absolutely were. John Wallace was harder to handle than Camby.
1996 was a banner year for college hoops. Soooo many exceptional teams that had the shitty luck of being stuck with each other in a nutty year.
-UConn might have had - arguably - their best team ever that year. They got bounced by Mississippi State who had a blah season, but was like preseason #3 or #4...
--Wake Forest had Tim fucking Duncan.
-Georgetown might have had one of their best teams ever with Iverson.
Again - not taking shit away from UMass or Kentucky - it adds to the legacy, but man.... soooo many scary teams that year.
So true. I think 96 was perhaps the best year ever for college basketball at least since tourney expanded in 85
Randolph Childress.
And Georgia Tech had Stephon Marbury, Drew Barry, and Matt Harpring. Watching that Kentucky vs Georgia Tech game early in the regular season was fun for the first half, then Kentucky pulled away with their depth in the second half. 1996 was such a great year for college basketball with so much future NBA all stars and talent. Probably will never see another season like it.
Watching Kentucky beat wake forest and Tim Duncan in the tournament was the epidemy of how great Kentucky was that year defensively. I've never seen another team before or after since that was so in tune defensively as a team. They would double Tim Duncan in the post relentlessly and get back to their man at not a high level, but an elite level. 1996 Kentucky IMO is the best college basketball team of all time.
@@Wetrockstah2116that’s a pretty solid assessment. the ‘90-‘91 UNLV team and the ‘91-‘92 Duke Team are right up there too.,
These were the best two teams by far that season.
16 years later, both coaches met in the Final Four (New Orleans - #1S Kentucky vs. #4W Louisville).
It is said after the 1996 game, Cal told Rick to "win it all" and in 2012, it is said Rick told Cal the same thing.
@@kentuckyman21 Also, Rick’s first Final Four (1987) was a loss to Syracuse who he avenged against.
And Cal came in with the National Player of the Year at Center in 2012 too.
Helluva game from two really great teams. UMASS had the POY in Camby, a freak force of nature in college. Plus, a great backcourt, lots of maturity and great chemistry. UK was loaded as hell, and has as much experience and chemistry. This was the real title game, as others have said.
I was 19..born a kentucky fan..this was a memorable, special team..
Great memories. I was fortunate enough to get to see this UK team play in the regional finals up in Minneapolis. They obliterated Keith Van Horn/Utah and then Tim Duncan/Wake Forest. To see them up close was unreal. Physical as hell. Perfect execution. I was really worried about meeting either Georgetown or UMass . On the ride leaving out of Minneapolis we heard that UMass had won, which set this game in motion. We talked about that matchup the whole way home back to Kentucky. Great experience. What’s hard to believe is that this has been almost 30 years ago. Doesn’t seem possible .
"GOOD BLOCK OUT BY POPE ON CAMBY , RIGHT THERE!"
Our coach if know you one thing about him, its how he played MARCUS CAMBY THE NCAA PLAYER OF YEAR. Down in simi finale charging and POPE PLAYED LIKE A ALL-AMERICAN.
"Clutch" is what the announcer say at end speaking about Pope's contribution. In the next game Pope was up against the guy many said was the player of year.. we have a clutch Coach something we've not had for 15 yrs.
1996 Kentucky was the greatest team ive ever seen. They were like a well tuned machine, they played elite team defense, relentless pressure, caused turnovers like crazy, and tony delk was a sniper from 3. To top it off 1996 was one of the deepest years in college basketball history with soo many great teams. Georgetown with allen Iverson, Wake Forest with Tim Duncan, Georgia tech with Stephon Marbury, Uconn had a really good team that year, there was some really good teams. This umass team coached by John Calipari was elite, and the NBA draft that year was one of the best in league history. 1996 Kentucky is the best team of all time. They still hold the NCAA tournament record for point differential, the only team to come close to that kind of tournament dominance was UConn here recently.
ty for this upload man I have been looking all for this one
Grew up in Bowling Green and loved WKU as a local team but UK will always be my favorite team of any sport along my my Yankees. The Prince/Bogan era was my favorite I have almost every game from 2000-2003. We underperformed almost every big game and shot bad FT% and 3pt. I still loved watching Bogans take 3’s anyway. This was a couple years before my time but love to watch. Funny who coached Umass. Lol
It would be nice to know what happened in the lives of these players after their playing career ended.
Look up "From the rafters of rupp arena" some players from the 96 team are on there
This Kentucky team lost only 2 games all season, and both of the teams that beat them made it to the Final Four. UMass ranked #5 at the time beat then #1 ranked Kentucky in the Cats second game of the year, 92-82, at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Kentucky would then run off 27 straight wins before Mississippi State beat them in the finals of the SEC Tournament 84-73 in the Louisiana Superdome, a loss that Coach Rick Pitino would later say may have been the best thing to happen to this team at the time. Pitino said the loss, in his opinion, was the difference between his team probably going into the NCAA Tournament cocky, over-confident, and taking some of the teams they faced in the tournament for granted. Pitino said though the UK fan base wasn't happen about the finals loss in the SEC Tournament, he was knew a loss of that magnitude right before the start of the NCAA Tournament would give all the ammuntion he needed to get the team refocussed in pratice and dedicated to the task at hand..............winning it all. Still, strange though as good as this UK team was that both of their losses were both by double digits.
That Kentucky bench though, going 12-13 players deep. UMass was about 6-8 deep. Remember a reporter describing Kentucky jumping around at the end of the game like the end of an exhibition, while Umass looked like they just got through a marathon.
Compared to minutes played Tony delk had better numbers than Allen Iverson in 96. Very underrated player.
KY really put on a clinic in this one .......way to go #BBN .... Hard to believe there were at least 4 HOF in this game........
NBA hall of fame? I don't think anyone from this game is a hall of Famer. Camby and Walker would be the closest but neither of them are in
The non-call on goal tending at 1:24:41 is amazing. Can you imagine that not being called in today's game?
I guess we'll never know. Looks like 100% goaltending to me. The ball was definitely going to hit the rim--it's not like it was going to clearly be an airball.
@@jameswoodard5547 Yeah it's not like the UCLA/SMU fiasco where it was an airball by 2 feet
Derek Andersons injury knocked us out of the 97 Championship!! Rick Pitino Staying at Ky..There's no telling how many Championships we'd won
Great game..really wierd now with all the changes ..esp last few min with all the coaches family 😊
I remember this game, and the broadcast, a classic and pretty much everyone knew Kentucky was almost certainly going to win this game, they played basically like an NBA team that tournament just destroying every opponent left and right. This was much closer then everyone expected, but it was almost a done deal that Kentucky was going to raise the trophy Monday night.
You must not remember well then. UMass was the #1 team and had beaten Kentucky earlier in the season 92-82. UMass also had the player of the year and #2 pick in the NBA draft, Marcus Camby. There were many experts that picked UMass to win this game and as a Kentucky fan, UMass was the only team that worried me. They could play the same style as us and had the best player on the court. UMass was no pushover for this Kentucky team like the 5 other opponents they faced in the 1996 tournament.
@@kevinsanders3630 I do remember and Syracuse put up quite a fight in the Final
Awesome game.
I miss the 90s.
Definitely...90s was the best decade in college basketball history
Another Classic
Kentucky almost gave it away. 71-61 back to 71-67 with Umass ball on several turnovers.
2600 children sung at the dinosaurs
I was in a tournament pool at my job that year. I drew 1 loss UMASS. Easily the 2nd best team that year. And l knew they had NO CHANCE to beat KY. A second time. That's how good they were.
two Kentucky wildcat coaches
Now we know there were three UK head coaches in that game.
oh man billy packer your brilliant the briton foul that put out the game and you could still be playing he wasnt so strong.yea and i could have been the 100 yard dash champ if i wasnt so fast haha
Poor Billy Packer always hated Kentucky😆 he knew they was winning the 96 title..
Little did Cal know he would win his first championship with UK.
The only two teams to beat UK that year were Final Four teams.
That's bullshit of course that camby shot was goaltender would have changed that game, Umass was the ultimate underdog who destroyed every team including Dunkans Wake forest
John Calipari vs. his future employer.
What hasn't JIm Nantz covered
Why padilla and trabieso didn't sign for the NBA
I dont know..
I do know that they went back to their home country of puerto rico and started their career there... They had a great career in pr, exiting to watch!
That Umass teams one of the best teams to not win tourney ..cant think 5 better
Can you drop us off at the woods
To my brothers sister. Tiggers bounce bounce bounce
Cal and Bruiser both on bench for UMass
To my brothers sister
so much funny stuff with this kentuckys current coach is playing and former coach is coaching umass lol and the other is still coaching at st. johns
I miss the days when the public address announcer did the player introductions /starting lineups. Now it's so lame...lets meet the west region champs....dumb music..."we are Kentucky!" More dumb music and players dancing on neon colored glass ugh
That's a fair point fr 💯
MARCH POPE!!!
Thornton Kirk Onondaga ball park ,.
Calling traveling on Delk for textbook hop step/pro hops. Hahahaha, smh
So nobody is going to mention that the only reason Kentucky won was the BS flop by Sheppard. Donta Bright fouled out simply because he was stronger. Not having him on the floor in the last 2:30 was the difference in the game. UMass should have won.
Uk was the better team , calls could have gone both ways, can't blame the game outcome on one play.
@@tonystrinko7298 If it was the deciding play of the game you can most definitely blame the outcome on it. But it is what it is. UK won
@@tonystrinko7298 Yeah, hard to break everything down to one call...I'm sure there were fouls Kentucky wanted that they didn't get...You could also say something like "If Umass didn't turn the ball over so much, they would've won..." But, UK was just better on this day, and had an overall better roster. One call definitely doesn't change the outcome of a game.
UK won because they were a little better...Umass had sooooo many TOs, and UK more or less shut down Travieso, who was so key to their offense. One call didn't decide the outcome, no matter when it was. Travieso getting two fouls in 15 seconds (both of which were legit calls) and all Umass' TOs vs. the press were bigger reasons UK won...Also, UK was much deeper, which was also a factor
@@elliemyers6435 not having Donta Bright on the floor for UMass in the last 2 and a half minutes sealed their fate. It just sucks that he fouled out on a call that usually isn’t made. Not taking anything away from UK.
To my brothers sister. Tiggers bounce bounce bounce