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

By Staff Dec 9, 2014

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.

Here’s part of [the post-game coverage from longtime Journal-World beat writer Gary Bedore][1]:

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

> 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/