Celebrate Dale Brown Day by Revisiting Past Duels with Kentucky

When LSU hosts Kentucky Tuesday night, it will be the first game played on Dale Brown Court. The Tigers will unveil the court’s new name at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center prior to tip-off.

Starting in 1972, Brown coached the Tigers for 25 seasons. He retired following the 1997 campaign with a record of 448-301, the third-most wins ever by an SEC coach. He took the Tigers to a pair of Final Fours in 1981 and 1986, the latter coming at the expense of the Wildcats. Brown had an 18-33 record against Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton and Rick Pitino. Let’s revisit some of the best battles between the two teams during his lengthy tenure.

1978: Brown Beats the Champs

Joe B. Hall’s 1978 National Champions only lost two games. One of those was to Brown’s LSU Tigers. Playing in Baton Rouge, Owensboro native Kenny Higgs scored 11 points against his home state school that did not recruit him.

After losing by 20 earlier in the season, Brown got in a public battle with Hall over coaching styles. The Tigers went four corners against Kentucky and let a 12-point lead slip away. The game went to overtime, but LSU made enough free throws down the stretch to dethrone top-ranked Kentucky 95-94 for the biggest win of Brown’s young career. Rick Robey led UK with 18 points and 11 rebounds.

1980: An LSU SEC Championship

One week after Kentucky won by two in overtime at LSU, the Tigers got revenge in the SEC Championship Game. Kyle Macy and Sam Bowie each scored 20 points for the Cats, but they could not out-duel DeWayne Scales who led all scorers with 26 points. The 80-78 win in Birmingham between top five teams is still the only SEC Tournament title in LSU basketball history.

1986: Fourth Time’s a Charm

They say it’s hard to beat the same team twice. It’s exponentially more difficult to beat a team four times. Led by Kenny Walker, Winston Bennett Ed Davender and one buzzer-beater from Roger Harden, Kentucky beat LSU three times in the 1986 season en route to an SEC Tournament title.

With a 9-9 record in SEC play, LSU squeaked into the NCAA Tournament as an 11-seed. Thanks to a weird rule at the time, they were able to host the first two rounds of the tournament, upsetting Purdue in double overtime, then defeating Memphis on a last second shot.

To reach the Southeast Regional Final, Kentucky had to beat Alabama for a fourth time. Prepared to the same to LSU, the Cats made just 9-of-16 free throw attempts. John Williams scored 16 points and the Tigers held on for a 59-57 win to become the first 11-seed to ever make the Final Four.

1990: Pitino Stuns LSU

At the lowest of lows for Kentucky basketball, Rick Pitino injected life into the Big Blue Nation in his first season with one of the most unlikely upsets in school history.

Brown had a pair of twin towers in the post, Stanley Roberts and a young Shaquille O’Neal, to complement scoring phenom Chris Jackson. Ranked No. 12 in the country with a significant talent advantage, not even 41 points and seven made-threes from Jackson could secure a win for Brown’s Tigers.

Barred from playing on live television, the game holds a dear spot in UK folklore. Official attendance at Rupp Arena was 24,301, but no less than 50,000 UK fans will tell you they were at the game where the Cats took down Shaq.

The Hall of Famer had 14 points and 15 rebounds, but Deron Feldhaus had the upper hand, scoring 24 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for UK. Reggie Hanson also posted a double-double, while Derrick Miller dropped 29 points to defeat LSU 100-95. Even though it was not televised, you can still watch the replay of the first big win for Pitino’s Bombinos.

1994: The Mardi Gras Miracle

Kentucky trailed by 31 points in the second half… and won. The largest comeback in college basketball history at the time, Pitino’s fullcourt press and 15 made three-pointers kept Kentucky’s hopes alive until Walter McCarty buried a go-ahead three from the corner with 19 seconds left. Brown let the game slip through his fingers, falling 99-95. The LSU head coach would never defeat Kentucky again.

1996: Kentucky Scores 86 in a Half

You read that correctly. No. 2 Kentucky scored EIGHTY-SIX points in one half of basketball. Pitino’s fullcourt press forced 22 LSU turnovers in the opening 20 minutes to lead 86-42 at halftime. Antoine Walker led all scorers with 32 points, Jeff Sheppard sunk 3-of-5 three-pointers, Ron Mercer had 15 and Tony Delk chipped in 14 points in the 129-97 win. Ten weeks later the Wildcats won National Championship No. 6 at The Meadowlands.