History of Kentucky basketball on St. Patrick's Day

I’ll spare you the cheesy local news greeting of, “Top of the mornin’ to ya,” and just say, “Happy St. Patrick’s Day.” More importantly, happy Kentucky NCAA Tournament game day!

Kentucky has played 16 times on this festive holiday since 1950 and holds a 12-4 record during that stretch. It makes sense they’ve excelled at this time in March because, well, Kentucky is historically awesome, and St. Patrick’s Day often falls during the first or second round of the NCAA tournament, a weekend when Kentucky typically faces inferior competition.

The exception to that was in 2009 when Kentucky played UNLV in the NIT thanks to a head coach who was no stranger to celebrating the Irish drinking holiday.

In the John Calipari era, Kentucky is 5-1 on St. Patrick’s Day, with the sole loss coming last season in a game we shall not speak of. In fact, before that bunch of malarky last season, Kentucky hadn’t lost a game on March 17th since 1973.

Kentucky has played three schools from its own state on St. Patrick’s Day, most recently beating Northern Kentucky in 2017, knocking out Eastern Kentucky in 2005, and defeating Morehead State way back in 1961.

Similar to the most recent postseason football trend, the ‘Cats have also played schools from the beer-loving Hawkeye state three times as well. They beat Iowa State in 2012 on their way to a national championship and split the series with Iowa, winning in 2001, and losing back in 1956.

On St. Patrick’s Day 2023, let’s all watch Kentucky play as carefree and confident as Ryan Lemond chugging a green beer. Most importantly, let’s watch the ‘Cats beat Providence, a team that they shouldn’t need any luck to defeat.

Having said that, if you find any four-leaf covers, pick one up just in case.

Kentucky’s history on St. Patrick’s Day since 1950

Date	Opponent	Round	Outcome	UK Score	Opp Score
3/17/22	St. Peters	First Round	L (OT)	79	85
3/17/18	Buffalo	Second Round	W	95	75
3/17/17	N. Kentucky	First Round	W	79	70
3/17/16	Stony Brook	First Round	W	85	57
3/17/12	Iowa State	Second Round	W	87	71
3/17/11	Princeton	First Round	W	59	57
3/17/09	UNLV	NIT First Round	W	70	60
3/17/06	UAB	First Round	W	69	64
3/17/05	E. Kentucky	First Round	W	72	64
3/17/01	Iowa	Second Round	W	92	79
3/17/84	BYU	First Round	W	93	68
3/17/77	VMI	Second Round	W	93	78
3/17/73	Indiana	Second Round	L	72	65
3/17/62	Ohio St	Second Round	L	74	64
3/17/61	Morehead St.	First Round	W	71	64
3/17/56	Iowa	Second Round	L	77	89