Kentucky had last cut down the nets in 1978. Over the next eighteen seasons, one of college basketball’s most storied programs reached only two Final Fours. But by 1996, the Wildcats were clearly coming. Rick Pitino had them consistently knocking on the door, including with the most recent of those Final Four appearances. What followed would be the most concentrated burst of dominance college basketball had seen in years.
In Lexington, only one thing matters—did you win at all? A loaded roster came into 1996 with championship-or-bust expectations.
Kentucky met the challenge, with a dominating regular season and then efficiently rolling through the tournament. They beat a young John Calipari’s UMass team in the national semifinals. A win over Jim Boeheim and Syracuse got the monkey off Pitino’s back and ended Kentucky’s championship drought.
But they weren’t done. The Wildcats came thundering back the next season. They made it all the way to the NCAA final again. They couldn’t quite survive Lute Olson’s Arizona, which made Kentucky the third #1 seed it defeated during a historic tournament run.
Pitino left for the NBA, but the winning rolled on under Tubby Smith. In 1998, the Wildcats rallied from 17 points down to beat Duke in the Elite Eight. Kentucky won its second title in three years by ending the Cinderella run of Utah and head coach Rick Majerus.
Three straight years in the NCAA championship game. Two wins and even the loss had to go to overtime. It was a compressed period of dominance to be sure, but it was the strongest three-year run any program had enjoyed since the end of the UCLA Dynasty.
There were other good teams and programs that were on the rise. Connecticut had started to emerge when the decade began, and Jim Calhoun had the Huskies consistently getting to the brink of the Final Four. Tom Izzo took over Michigan State, and the Spartans were finding their footing. Kansas, with Roy Williams at the helm, looked poised for a title in 1997 before running into Arizona.
Each, and several others, would play a big role in the era to come. But 1996 through 1998 belonged, without a doubt, to Big Blue.