Kentucky makes history in Sweet 16 appearance

What if I told you that Kentucky making its first Sweet 16 since 2019 isn’t the coolest stat coming out of the team’s 84-75 win over No. 6 seed Illinois?

We know the Wildcats rank among the worst in college basketball in terms of minutes continuity — actually, they are the worst, tied for dead last at No. 355 in the country with 0.0% back from a year ago.

That’s zero returning scholarship pieces, for those keeping track at home.

With this group put together last-second with sticks and glue as Mark Pope scrambled to fill a portal-heavy roster in April and May, Kentucky becomes the first team in 20 years to reach a Sweet 16 without a single scoring contributor from the year before.

“Kentucky is the only team to make the Sweet 16 in the last 20 years with zero (0) returning points from the season prior, per CBS Sports’ research,” Matt Norlander shared shortly after the game went final.

The UK social media team certainly liked hearing that.

Pretty fun stat here from @MattNorlander 👍 pic.twitter.com/V0Qac3S6SR

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) March 24, 2025

While we’re sharing fun stats, here are a couple more from our friend Corey Price of UK Athletics:

• Only five Kentucky teams since 2000 have won their first two games of the NCAA Tournament by at least 9 points each (2003, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2025)
• This is just the second UK team ever to make at least eight 3-pointers in each of the first two rounds, joining the 1998-99 squad
• Koby Brea and Otega Oweh are the first pair of Wildcats to score at least 13 points in their first two NCAA Tournament games at UK since Bam Adebayo and De’Aaron Fox in 2016-17
• It is Kentucky’s largest margin of victory against a team seeded 6 or better in March Madness since 2017 (11 points vs. No. 3 seed UCLA)
• Brea is the first Kentucky player to hit at least three 3-pointers in each of the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament since John Wall in 2010

Let’s make more history in Indy, BBN.