1991–92 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team
The 1991–92 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team represented the University of Kentucky in NCAA competition in the 1991–92 season. The team was coached by Rick Pitino.
This season's team is one of the most fondly remembered in UK's long basketball history. Due to major recruiting violations committed by Pitino's predecessor Eddie Sutton, the 1991–92 Wildcats were coming off a three-year postseason ban where the team was not allowed to compete in tournament play. The violations had mainly centered on alleged cheating by 1987–89 player Eric Manuel on the ACT college entrance exam and cash payments to the guardian of another former player, Chris Mills.
The 1991–92 season was the first year after probation when the Wildcats were allowed to compete and the only opportunity for the team's four seniors, who remained loyal to the program as opposed to transferring to teams allowed in the tournament. Three of these seniors were Kentucky natives. Together, all four would enter Kentucky basketball history as "The Unforgettables":
- Richie Farmer, a 6'0"/1.83 m shooting guard from Manchester, a small town in the commonwealth's eastern coal fields.
- Deron Feldhaus, a 6'7"/2.01 m forward from Maysville, a small Ohio River town in the Bluegrass region, about an hour's drive upriver from Cincinnati.
- John Pelphrey, a 6'8"/2.03 m forward from another eastern coal town, Paintsville.
- Sean Woods, the only non-Kentuckian "Unforgettable," a 6'2"/1.88 m point guard from Indianapolis.
The Wildcats' run in the NCAA tournament would end in a regional final against Duke that is often cited as the greatest college game ever played. The heavily favored Blue Devils survived an overtime thriller on Christian Laettner's last-second shot at the buzzer.
Team legacy
The legacy of "The Unforgettables" was so great within the university that the UK program decided to retire the players' jerseys almost immediately after their final tournament game. The team also went on a post-tournament all-county exhibition tour, where thousands of Kentuckians gathered in high school gyms across the commonwealth to meet and express pride in the team.National and local sports news outlets continued to cover the players in "where are they now" and similar features for at least 25 years after the tournament. In 2005, a documentary film about the team, "Beyond the Glory," was released.
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=9 style=| Regular Season!colspan=9 style=| SEC Tournament
!colspan=9 style=| NCAA Tournament
NCAA basketball tournament
- East
- *Kentucky 88, Old Dominion 69
- *Kentucky 106, Iowa State 98
- *Kentucky 87, Massachusetts 77
- *Duke 104, Kentucky 103
Rankings