NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 25 NCAA Tournament champions

9) 1996 Kentucky Wildcats

Record: 34-2, 16-0 in SEC

How good was this Kentucky Wildcats team? Their only two losses came against Marcus Camby, John Calipari and the UMass Minutemen in November and then against the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the SEC Tournament title game.

Not bad, huh?

The preseason No. 1 team in the country spent the entire season ranked in the top five and put together one of the more impressive runs through the Big Dance ever.

One of only a handful of teams to go undefeated in conference play throughout the course of a regular season, Kentucky’s run was not seen as an incredible feat given how weak the conference was that year. Mississippi State was the only ranked team they faced in the SEC, and the Bulldogs got their revenge in the conference championship game.

Clearly frustrated and re-focused following that loss to Mississippi State, Kentucky’s 20-point win over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in the Elite Eight was the closest game they played in their region on their way to the Final Four.

Once there, got revenge by beating UMass, meaning they had now beaten both of the teams that had also beaten them, before knocking off the Syracuse Orangemen in convincing fashion to cut down the nets.

Three players in Antoine Walker, Tony Delk and Walter McCarthy were top-20 picks in the NBA Draft, while nine players from “The Untouchables” ended up playing in the NBA.

However, they don’t join the elite of the elite because of their schedule. In a down year for the SEC, the Wildcats only beat four ranked teams all season. They proved themselves in the NCAA Tournament but, when you’re splitting hairs among this many great teams, that matters.