come Louisiana State's four-point second half lead and win the conference title in the unprecedented playoff game, March 9, on Vander-bilt's neutral court in Nashville. The score was 63 to 56.
Kentucky's 25 wins came despite the lack of two very desirable ingredients winning basketball teams had  (1) a tall player of the goal-tender variety, and (2) a bench that, at the outset, lacked competitive experience.
It was Adolph Rupp's 24th year at Kentucky. Although he was a sick man at the end, it probably was not the last for this remarkable 52-year-old, Kansas-born coach. His teams have now won 496 games and lost 82, a winning average of 86 per cent. They haven't been on the short end at home in Lexington since 1943. Drawing 145,000 in 14 home games, Rupp's Cats extended that amazing streak to 124.
Wildcats Of '54 Greatest
Coach Rupp, who supposedly declared after UK's suspension in '53 that he'd not retire until his boys captured the NCAA tourney crown again, unhesitatingly called the 1954 Wildcats one of the great cage aggregations of all time and was inclined to think of them as his best team. This took in a lot of territory, however. Although this was Kentucky's first totally perfect season since 1912 (9-0) and represented a new national record for consecutive wins in an undefeated season, the veteran mentor pointed out that there have been numerous other Wildcat teams good in their day: The 1933-34 outfit that racked up a perfect regular season of 15 wins only to be upset in the first round of the SEC tournament; the 1945-46 team that lost only two games, while rolling to the school's first national tournament (NIT) title; the Olympic crew of 1947-48 which engineered a brilliant 36-3 record and aided the successful effort of the United States to gain the world basketball championship; the Fabulous Five of 1948-49 that tried for a national tournament "Grand Slam"; and the 1950-51 team that made Kentucky the first team to win three NCAA and one NIT title and which won a record of 39 Vi games and lost only two during regular season, tournament play and an exhibition tour in Puerto Rico.
Just how good the 1954 crew of Kentucky basketeers was may never be known.
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