25 years ago today, KU basketball beat Kentucky, 150-95

KU players gather on the court during KU's 150-95 blowout of Rick Pitino's Kentucky Wildcats in December, 1989. From left are Pekka Markkanen, Freeman West, Kevin Prichard and Jeff Gueldner. Seven KU players scored in double figures.

On Dec. 9, 1989, Kansas handed Kentucky its worst loss in program history, 150-95.

25 years later, it’s still hard to believe …

– 150 points in a game (current KU record)
– 80 points in the first half (current KU record)
– 70 points in the second half
– 53 rebounds
– 52 field goals made (current KU record)
– 36 assists (current KU record)
– 36 free throws made
– 10 three-pointers
– And six players with at least 16 points

… all against one of the top programs in college basketball history.

Box score from the Kansas-Kentucky game, Dec. 9, 1989, at Allen Fieldhouse.

Here’s part of the post-game coverage from longtime Journal-World beat writer Gary Bedore:

Rick Pitino sure didn’t act like a
coach who had been left twisting in
the wind.

Yet Adolph Rupp, the legendary Baron
of the Bluegrass, the man who turned
college basketball into a religion in
Kentucky, may have been twisting in
his grave.

“I’m not concerned about the score,”
Pitino said after Kansas besmirched
bluegrass basketball with an
astonishing 150-95 victory on Saturday
afternoon in Allen Fieldhouse.

“We could have slowed down,” added
Pitino, who left the New York Knicks
to take over Kentucky’s
probation-riddled program this season,
“but we can’t get anything out of
that. It’s very, very embarrassing,
but if you hang your heads that’ll
happen. And until we get some bigger
bodies, it’ll happen again.”

It was the most lopsided loss in the
history of Kentucky’s tradition-rich
program. City College of New York, a
school that has long since dropped
basketball, clubbed the Wildcats,
89-39, in the NIT back in 1950.

Too, the 150 points were the most a
Kentucky team had surrendered in 1,945
games. . .or ever since the school
started its program back in 1903. The
previous high was 116 and that was in
a 118-116 win over Northwestern back
in 1966.

Did Pitino think Kansas coach Roy
Williams tried to run up the score?

“I believe they weren’t trying to hurt
anyone,” he said. “They were just
passing the ball and scoring. They
just drilled us.”

The blowout inspired plenty of great quotes, including this one that brings to mind Bill Self’s more recent “Topeka YMCA” comments:

“I didn’t think we could score 80 in a half against St. Mary’s of the Western Plains. I didn’t think we could do it against a high school,” said KU guard Kevin Pritchard.

More coverage from the immediate aftermath:

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/1989/dec/10/pitino/

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/1989/dec/10/holy_peach_baskets_kansas/

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/1989/dec/10/williams_had_chat_with/

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/1989/dec/10/s_game_records/

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/1989/dec/11/pritchard_knows_uk_fans/

http://www2.kusports.com/news/1990/dec/06/cats_game_plan/

Also, be sure to check out various retrospectives from the past 25 years:

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2010/jan/20/greatest-ku-games-no-9/

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2006/dec/19/woodling_barrage_no_game_forget/

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2005/jan/09/ku_150_kentucky/

Or, if you have some time to kill, watch the historic game in its entirety.