With fixation on Duke, some Kentucky basketball backers are fighting ‘the last war’

When it began to appear late last week that five-star class of 2024 big man Flory Bidunga was going to spurn favored Duke in his recruitment, the reaction on at least one Kentucky Wildcats sports Internet message board fascinated me.

There were ample celebratory posts over Duke’s pending misfortune even though, initially, the conventional wisdom was that Bidunga was going to pick UK’s SEC rival Auburn.

When Bidunga ultimately surprised the recruiting geeks by committing to Kansas, some of the UK fan reaction fell into the “at least it wasn’t Duke” category.

There’s an old saying that generals tend to “fight the last war.” In their continued fixation on Duke, I wonder if some UK backers aren’t guilty of a basketball version of that.

With Mike Krzyzewski in retirement, Kansas and Bill Self have, to coin a phrase, emerged as the “gold standard” among the primary men’s college hoops blue bloods — Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina.

(I would argue that Villanova, Connecticut and Gonzaga have in the 21st century become “new blood, blue bloods,” while Indiana and UCLA have fallen from the ranks of traditional blue bloods due to a lack of sustained, modern success. Those are, however, topics for a different column).

Among the four traditional blue bloods:

▪ Kansas has won the most total games over the past five seasons: 1. Kansas 137; 2. Duke 129; 3. Kentucky 112; 4. North Carolina 110.

▪ Kansas has won the most NCAA Tournament games over the past five seasons: 1. Kansas nine; 2. Duke eight; 3. North Carolina seven; 4. Kentucky four.

▪ Kansas has won the most total games over the past 10 seasons: 1. Kansas 284; 2. Duke 272; 3. Kentucky 264; 4. North Carolina 252.

▪ Kansas has won the second-most NCAA Tournament games over the past 10 seasons: 1. North Carolina 22; 2. Kansas 21; 3. Duke 20; 4. Kentucky 19.

▪ Kansas also has won the most recent NCAA championship: 1. Kansas 2022; 2. North Carolina 2017; 3. Duke 2015; 4. Kentucky 2012.

In the head-to-head competition between UK and KU, Self has totally flipped the competitive balance. Before Self arrived in Lawrence prior to the 2003-04 season, UK was 19-3 all-time in head-to-head contests vs. the Jayhawks.

Under Self, Kansas has gone 8-5 vs. Kentucky — and KU has beaten UK in five of the seven most-recent meetings.

Most painfully for Cats fans, the relentless, regular-season excellence Self has authored at KU — the coach has led the Jayhawks to 10 different seasons with 30 wins or more — has allowed Kansas to displace Kentucky as the all-time victories leader in men’s college hoops history.

After the 2022-23 season, the all-time wins race stood: 1. Kansas 2,385; 2. Kentucky 2,375; 3. North Carolina 2,342; 4. Duke 2,293.

(Could Kentucky wrest the all-time wins lead back from Kansas this summer without playing a game? KU is expecting word soon from the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Process on what penalties, if any, the Jayhawks will face after being charged with five level one violations that arose from the FBI investigation of college basketball corruption.

The IARP, a suggestion of the basketball reform commission headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has been such a flop, the NCAA is disbanding it after it issues its Kansas ruling.

While doling out what have mostly been too-lenient punishments in major cases, the IARP has shown some willingness to vacate wins for the use of ineligible players. It is thought Kansas could have to vacate as many as 15 victories in which Silvio de Sousa played during the 2017-18 season if the IARP retroactively finds the 6-foot-9 forward was ineligible.

Should that happen, the all-time wins standings entering the 2023-24 season would be: 1. Kentucky 2,375; 2. Kansas 2,370).

While Krzyzewski was leading Duke to five NCAA titles, 13 Final Fours and becoming the all-time NCAA Division I men’s college hoops coaching wins leader (1,202), he directed the Blue Devils to seven wins in nine meetings vs. Kentucky.

That’s how Duke emerged as public enemy No. 1 in the Big Blue Nation. Since Coach K called it a career, his chosen successor, ex-Blue Devils standout and assistant coach Jon Scheyer, is off to a promising start.

Duke has continued to recruit well and went 27-9 and won the ACC Tournament last season, Scheyer’s first as head man. However, the sample size is too small to judge whether the Blue Devils will ultimately remain at the elite level to which Krzyzewski took them.

All of which is why it is Kansas, not Duke, to which Kentucky basketball backers should primarily dedicate their fretting.

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