NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 25 NCAA Tournament champions

19) 1998 Kentucky Wildcats

Record: 35-4, 14-2 in SEC

The Kentucky Wildcats’ second championship in three years was not as good as the first, but this team and their run was still very noteworthy.

Head coach Tubby Smith kept the Wildcats ranked in the top 10 for the entire season in his first year in Lexington. Smith relied on an explosive offense thanks to the remnants of the group Pitino left behind. He was far from a caretaker, as he got the most out of this group that lacked elite players (more on that in a second). That team-centric style paved the way for their tournament run.

They didn’t suffer any bad losses during the regular season. Two were to teams ranked in the top 20 and the other two were rivalry games against the Louisville Cardinals and the Florida Gators. Kentucky also won their first three NCAA Tournament games in relatively easy fashion.

Still, doubts about this group lingered into their Elite Eight showdown against the Duke Blue Devils. Kentucky trailed by as many as 18 points, including 11 in the second half, before a furious comeback earned them a two-point win and a Final Four berth. They then needed overtime to beat the Stanford Cardinal by one in the Final Four before handling a good Utah Utes team in the national championship game.

This Wildcats team finds themselves this low because of a lack of top-end talent and lack of quality wins. They only had one win over a team ranked in the top 10 until March, as it was a down year for the SEC. Nazr Mohammed was the only player who was selected in the 1998 NBA Draft.