well, sports illustrated and many others publish team of the decade rankings... which to me is a pretty good mark of a program. i've never seen one with UK in the top 10 for the 2000s. its been a long time since i tried to dig back into historical, but no other period i found was kentucky left off. maybe a somewhat arbitrary measure, but i think its safe to say uk was NOT one of the premier programs in the 2000s, top 10 would be a stretch, and that's mostly on tubby.
i agree, you could make an argument for a few others. i never liked the UCLA argument, being amazing for 15 years under special circumstances and then just being good for all the rest of time, i just don't see it. i would not put UCLA above UNC for sure and not some others. UNC has a bit of a special argument in having the head to head winning record on every other elite program. i do agree kansas is a special program, nobody will ever take away that they are the history of basketball, with naismith founding the game, allen and rupp both being naismith disciples, etc.
i guess the difference between UK and others to me is the consistency of greatness over time. rupp remains one of a few all time greats, at the end of the rupp period, kentucky was probably the gold standard. in the post-rupp period, kentucky is easily one of the best, too, with 4 titles between 4 coaches. no program has nearly as many championship winning coaches as kentucky (5) - proving its kentucky, not a single coach. does any other program have more than 2? duke, i struggle with, outside of coach K, they were one of the good programs in basketball, but not one of the great ones. don't get me wrong - they were definitely very good before K, i don't think its only K. but he has all 5 titles, that has to count for something. unc i think has the best argument after kentucky, they've been great for a really long time, smith is legendary, they've been great under williams, #3 all time in wins, 5 championships, i believe #1 in final fours (maybe dropped recently to duke not sure). louisville.. i like lousiville, i *try* to make an argument that they are in the same category as a duke, but its tough. 3 titles, 2 great coaches, i think like 5th or 6th all time in s16s... definitely one of the games' greats, but compared to kentucky? hard for even a louisville fan. uconn has 1 coach and not much else. great coach, great program, but not kentucky.
so, to me, i do think a ucla fan could argue ucla just on titles, but i don't buy it, being the gold standard requires longevity. duke and lousiville and uconn don't have the long term dominance. kansas and unc do, but the height of greatness doesn't match UK, with 8 titles and 5 title winning coaches. so, that is my position. ill steal this from wikipedia because they capture it better than me, this extent of dominance in the stats just cannot be met by anyone else. i will admit a handful of those stats are just stupid, like championship coaches in a decade, 1, rank #1.... yeah, ok. UK fans are a bit overzealous, yes. lot of meat in there in the part about wins and appearances in the NT and all NT rounds.
edit: note that really, in general, i don't think there is generally a CLEAR winner in most sports (F the yankees) and i generally take no exceptions to fans of reasonable programs taking the stance their team is the best. its only in fan-nature, i don't intend or pretend to be unbias.
- All Time Wins: 2193 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- All Time Winning Percentage: .764 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- NCAA Championships: 8 (NCAA rank No. 2)[99]
- NCAA Championship Game Appearances: 12 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- NCAA Final Four Appearances: 17 (NCAA rank No. 2)[99]
- NCAA Final Four Games Played: 28 (NCAA rank No. 3)[99]
- NCAA Final Four Wins: 20 (NCAA rank No. 2)[99]
- NCAA Final Four Winning Percentage: .715 (NCAA rank No. 8)[99]
- NCAA Elite-8 Appearances: 36 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- NCAA Sweet-16 Appearances: 41 (NCAA rank No. 1)[3]
- NCAA Tournament Appearances: 54 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- NCAA Tournament Games Played: 168 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- NCAA Tournament Wins: 120 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- NCAA Tournament Winning Percentage: .719 (NCAA rank No. 4)[99]
- Total Postseason Tournament Appearances (NCAA and NIT): 63 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- NBA Draft Picks: 110 (NCAA rank No. 1)[17]
- All-Americans: 57 (NCAA rank No. 1)[100]
- All-American Total Selections: 87 (NCAA rank No. 1)[100]
- First Team Consensus All-Americans: 20 (NCAA rank No. 2)[101]
- First Team Consensus All-American Total Selections: 25 (NCAA rank No.2)[101]
- AP Poll Top-20/25 Weeks Ranked All Time: 825 (NCAA rank No. 2)[102]
- AP Poll Top-10 Weeks Ranked All Time: 653 (NCAA rank No. 1)[102]
- AP Poll Top-5 Weeks Ranked All Time: 441 (NCAA rank No. 1)[102]
- AP Poll No. 1 Weeks Ranked All Time: 120 (NCAA rank No. 3)[102]
- Final AP Poll Top-25 Finishes: 49 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Final AP Poll Top-20 Finishes: 49 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Final AP Poll Top-15 Finishes: 44 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Final AP Poll Top-10 Finishes: 40 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Final AP Poll Top-5 Finishes: 29 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Final AP Poll No. 1 Finishes: 10 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- All Time Winning Percentage Against AP-Ranked Opponents: .615 (NCAA Rank No. 1)[98]
- Final UPI/Coaches' Poll Top-25 Finishes: 47 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Final UPI/Coaches' Poll Top-20 Finishes: 46 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Final UPI/Coaches' Poll Top-15 Finishes: 43 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Final UPI/Coaches' Poll Top-10 Finishes: 39 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Final UPI/Coaches' Poll Top-5 Finishes: 30 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Final UPI/Coaches' Poll No. 1 Finishes: 8 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Total 20-Win Seasons: 59 (NCAA rank No. 1)[101]
- Total 25-Win Seasons: 33 (NCAA rank No. 2)[101]
- Total 30-Win Seasons: 14 (NCAA rank No. 1)[101]
- Total 35-Win Seasons: 6 (NCAA rank No. 1)[101]
- Average Victories Per Season Played: 19.4464285714(NCAA rank No. 3)[98]
- Average Losses Per Season Played: 6.0 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Total Winning Seasons: 95 (NCAA rank No. 2)[101]
- Total Non-Losing Seasons (.500 or better): 98 (NCAA rank No. 2)[101]
- Total Undefeated Seasons: 2 (NCAA rank No. 2)[98]
- Total Head Coaches With a NCAA Championship: 5 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Head Coaches With Multiple NCAA Championships: 1 (NCAA rank No. 2)[99]
- Total Head Coaches With Multiple NCAA Championships in the Same Decade: 1 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Head Coaches With a NCAA Championship Game Appearance: 5 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Head Coaches With Multiple NCAA Championship Game Appearances: 4 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Head Coaches With Multiple NCAA Championship Game Appearances in the Same Decade: 4 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Head Coaches With a NCAA Final Four Appearance: 5 (NCAA rank No. 2)[99]
- Total Head Coaches With Multiple NCAA Final Four Appearances: 4 (NCAA rank No. 2)[99]
- Total Head Coaches With Multiple NCAA Final Four Appearances in the Same Decade: 4 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Head Coaches With Both NCAA and NIT Championships: 2 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Total Decades With a NCAA Championship: 5 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Decades With Multiple NCAA Championships: 3 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Decades With a NCAA Championship Game Appearance: 6 (NCAA rank No. 2)[99]
- Total Decades With Multiple NCAA Championship Game Appearances: 5 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Decades With a NCAA Final Four Appearance: 7 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Decades With Multiple NCAA Final Four Appearances: 5 (NCAA rank No. 1)[99]
- Total Decades No. 1 in Total Wins (since 1930): 1 (NCAA rank No. 2)[98]
- Total Decades Top-5 in Total Wins (since 1930): 4 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Total Decades Top-10 in Total Wins (since 1930): 7 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Total Decades No. 1 in Winning Percentage (since 1930): 2 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Total Decades Top-5 in Winning Percentage (since 1930): 6 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Total Decades Top-10 in Winning Percentage (since 1930): 7 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
- Conference Regular Season Championships: 48 (NCAA rank No. 2)[3]
- Conference Tournament Championships: 29 (NCAA rank No. 1)[3]
- National Attendance Titles: 25 (NCAA rank No. 1)[98]
2/1/2016 6:08 PM (edited)