How Many Times has Kentucky Beat the National Champs?

For the first time since John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats cut down the nets in 2012, the National Championship Trophy is in SEC country. Florida erased a 12-point deficit to defeat Houston 65-63 in San Antonio.

For a moment on Saturday night, the final game of the 2024-25 college basketball season appeared to feature two teams Kentucky beat in the regular season, Florida and Duke. Cooper Flagg‘s flub prevented history from repeating itself.

This weekend’s results in San Antonio led me to ask the question, how many times has Kentucky beaten the National Champs? There have been 86 NCAA Tournament winners and ten of them lost to Kentucky in the same season.

2025: Florida Falls in Rupp Arena Thriller

The best season in the history of SEC basketball opened with a banger at Rupp Arena. It was a shot-making showcase. Florida shot 55% from the field and knocked down 12 three-pointers, only to be outdone by Kentucky’s 57.8% shooting display that featured 14 threes. Koby Brea hit 7-9 three-point attempts to lead UK in scoring with 23 points in a 106-100 victory.

2022: Kentucky Blitzes Kansas at Phog Allen

The 2022 season had a regrettable finish, particularly after the Cats put it on Kansas at Phog Allen. National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe had a typical double-double with 17 points and 14 boards, but that afternoon in Lawrence was the Keion Brooks show. The Indiana native played his best game in a Kentucky uniform, tallying 27 points and 8 rebounds in an 80-62 victory. Kansas knocked out Villanova in the Final Four before beating North Carolina by three in the National Championship game.

2017: Malik Monk goes Nuclear

Big Blue Nation was treated to one of the best single-game performances ever by a Kentucky Wildcat when Calipari took Malik Monk to Vegas for the CBS Sports Classic. North Carolina could not contain Monk. The freshman hit a contested three to tie the game, then hit the game-winner from the same spot to cap off a 47-point performance.

Kentucky looked National Championship good. Unfortunately, the Elite Eight rematch was marred by a thousand fouls and Luke Maye‘s buzzer-beater that ended Kentucky’s season before the Tar Heels took down Gonzaga in Phoenix.

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2000: Kentucky Wins a Transitive Property Championship

Before the Flintstones became a household name, Kentucky erased a 15-point first half deficit to take down the fifth-ranked Spartans 60-58 at Rupp Arena. Michigan State did not have Mateen Cleaves, but we don’t have to linger on that fact. J.P. Blevins knocked down 3-4 threes for one of his best games as a Wildcat, Tayshaun Prince had 17, and Jamaal Magloire tallied 18 points and 11 rebounds during his First Team All-SEC campaign.

Kentucky also defeated the other team in the 2000 title. Nine-year-old Nick Roush was prepared to call the Cats National Champs because Billy Donovan’s first Final Four team lost by 15 points to Kentucky in the regular season finale.

1994: Cats get Revenge vs the Hogs

No. 3 vs No. 4 met at Rupp Arena in the regular season. Nolan Richardson’s team ran away with a double-digit win. Ranked No. 1 to end the regular season, Corliss Williamson was outstanding (23 points, 16 rebounds), but Kentucky’s defense forced 14 turnovers as the Cats had five players score in double figures. Travis Ford was 5-7 from three-point land as Kentucky handed the Hogs their final loss of the season with a 90-78 win in Memphis. Kentucky has never lost an SEC Tournament game in Memphis. The Razorbacks would go on to beat Duke to win the program’s only National Championship.

Kentucky Wins over Rivals

Louisville won the Dream Game in overtime, but the Wildcats took six of the next seven during Denny Crum’s dominant stretch in the 80s. That includes a 69-64 win during the 1985-86 season. Louisville native Winston Bennett had 23 points and 7 rebounds in the victory at Rupp.

Indiana had Isiah Thomas in 1981, but his 20 points weren’t enough to take down the second-ranked Cats at Assembly Hall. Sam Bowie scored 14 points and Joe B. Hall’s squad squeaked out a 68-66 win in a battle of top-five teams. The Hoosiers would beat North Carolina at the Spectrum to win their fourth National Championship.

Three Interesting Historical Revelations

You never know what you’re going to learn when you dig deep into Kentucky basketball history.

1. John Havlicek won a National Championship for Ohio State. I had no idea the Celtics legend helped the Buckeyes won the 1960 title. He had 16 points against the Cats, but Jerry Lucas was the star of that game. His 34 points weren’t enough to take down Rupp’s team, who got 55 from Bill Lickert and Bennie Coffman in a 96-93 Kentucky win.

2. Teams Played in the NCAA Tournament and NIT. You’ve always heard that the NIT was often considered the more prominent postseason tournament back in the day. I had no idea teams could play in both. Utah won the 1944 National Championship but lost to Kentucky in the NIT.

3. Kentucky should have another National Championship. In 1954, graduate students were not allowed to participate in postseason play. The Cats’ three best players — Cliff Hagan, Lou Tsioropoulos, and Frank Ramsey — were all graduate seniors. They had extra hours because the Cats were not allowed to play the previous season due to a point-shaving scandal.

They couldn’t play in the NCAA Tournament, but the 1954 team beat the crap out of everyone else. Their average margin of victory was 27.1 points, and only two teams played them within single digits. The NCAA Champions from La Salle were not among them. Kentucky beat La Salle 73-60 in the UKIT final, then beat them again the following season by nine points too. The 1954 Wildcats finished the year an undefeated 25-0.