Greetings, BBN!
Today, we are taking a look at the Kentucky Wildcats’ record against every Big 12 team, both in regular season and NCAA Tournament play.
Compared to the Big Ten, UK has fared much better against these schools and holds winning records against every one of them except Arizona. In NCAA Tournament history, the 16 teams that make up the conference today have had an absolutely massive impact on Kentucky’s basketball success — five of their eight titles came from beating these schools. Five! They are 5-1 in such title games, with the lone loss to Arizona in 1997.
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Let’s take a look at UK vs the Big 12:
Kentucky Basketball Against The Big 12
Notes:
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UK has won national titles against Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Utah.
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What an absolute horror UK has been to Utah and a swirling source of disaster and ruin for the Utes’ basketball dreams! They’ve met in the Big Dance six times, and all in a 12-year span! In those 12 years, Utah went to nine tournaments and got bounced in six of them by the same team, including in 1998 for the national championship!
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The mighty blue-blood Kansas Jayhawks have not had much success against Kentucky in head-to-heads over the years, with UK dominating the series 24-12 and besting them for the 2012 national title. They’ve played quite often these past two decades with the Champions Classic and SEC/Big 12 Challenge, and in those games UK has gone 4-6.
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UK beat Houston in the NCAA Tournament somewhat recently in 2019 to reach the Elite Eight. That team featured PJ Washington and Tyler Herro. That’s the last win they’ve had against a current Big 12 school in the Big Dance.
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Kansas State has hurt UK in the NCAA Tournament a couple of times in the last decade, winning in 2023 and 2018.
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