SEC Basketball: Counting down the Top 4 teams of all-time

3. 2012 Kentucky

It’s hard to believe the 2012 University of Kentucky team led by Anthony Davis and a young(er) John Calipari was already 11 years ago.

But their dominance still holds a special place in history as they were the quintessential favorite going into the tournament and came out victorious.

The Wildcats lost three players from the previous 2011 season to the NBA Draft but it didn’t matter as they signed four 5-star recruits and returned power forward Terrence Jones who averaged 15.7 points per game the year prior.

Kentucky was ranked 2nd in the Pre-season AP Poll and never dropped below 3 the entire year.

After an early season loss to unranked Indiana, they went on a 24-game win streak.

Unfortunately their win streak was snapped in the SEC Championship to Vanderbilt, leaving the only hole in their resume.

The Wildcats were led by freshman sensations Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who later became the first teammates drafted with the top two overall picks in the NBA Draft.

Davis and his unibrow captivated the national audience with his dominating defense as he won a plethora of awards including the NABC Defensive Player of the Year, Wooden Award, and AP Player of the Year.

Kidd-Gilchrist was no slouch either as he was a Consensus Second Team All-American averaging 12 points per game.

And for the rest of the squad; six players were drafted in the 2012 NBA Draft with four going in the first round.

It was the height of the one-and-done for Kentucky and the title run legitimized the method which began the spread to other big time programs.

This Kentucky team gets lost in the shuffle in the all-time talks (outside of SEC basketball) but as time continues to pass, there aren’t many teams better than this one.