Fans of both blues are happy to still play in the regular season.
To many, it was a disappointment when UNC and Kentucky ended their annual basketball series after playing in 11 out of Roy Williams’ first 12 years back at Carolina, plus many other seasons under Matt Doherty, Bill Guthridge and Dean Smith. It was Smith, in fact, who suggested to Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp that their teams play annually. Rupp agreed, since UNC wasn’t very good back then.
Smith pulled some big upsets over the Wildcats, including going into Memorial Gym in Lexington in 1962 and shutting down All-American Cotton Nash for the 68-66 stunner. And Smith took great pleasure in bringing his second-ranked 1969 team to Kentucky with UNC’s first black scholarship athlete, Charlie Scott, to defeat well-known segregationist Rupp and his No. 3 Wildcats, for Tar Heels’ 4th straight win in the series, which currently stands 23-14 in their favor.
So despite not playing every season, the teams agreed to a nice compromise by signing for the next three CBS Sports Classics after Saturday’s game in Las Vegas. Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio State and UCLA will remain in the classic that changes venue every year as the teams take turns playing each other. So it’s the Heels and Cats at least once every three years and, of course, there’s always the NCAA Tournament.
This year’s game will pit different recruiting philosophies against each other, with Kentucky unveiling its latest super star freshman class against another veteran team for Williams, who will certainly take a one and done but who likes to give his program the foundation of experience. I can’t even scout Kentucky for you at this point but I do know they have a Monk, a Fox and a Bam among the freshmen who are averaging in double figures.
Despite how poorly the Tar heels have played recently, they will get Joel Berry back and their style of controlled running is a good match-up for Kentucky’s more helter-skelter play. So it should be another great renewal of two of the winningest programs in college basketball history and a good 2017 resume builder for the victor.
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