January 11th: On this date...

... in 1997, your third ranked University of Kentucky Wildcats were upset in Oxford, Mississippi, by the most famous basketball player in Ole Miss history..........Ansu Sesay. The 73-69 loss snapped a 14-game winning streak for UK, moving the Cats to 14-2 on the season. It was the first loss in nearly two months for the defending National Champions; the first coming to #20 Clemson in the opening game of the 1996-97 campaign. The shooters: Allen Edwards, Derek Anderson, and Ron Mercer, were off the mark, going a combined 8-31 from the field. The team went a paltry 3-13 behind the arc. To this day, I’ll always blame it on the lighting in that hole they called a gym. Homecourt advantage is homecourt advantage, that is until you refuse to put lighting over the baskets. One of the weirder phenomenons in college basketball. As you can tell, I took loss #2 very well The MVP of the All-Name team, Ansu Sesay, finished the game with 16 points - 8 rebounds - 2 assists - 2 steals - 2 blocks. Big Blue would eventually finish out the year 35-5, falling one win short of bacl-to-back National Championships.

Big Blue Booyah on Tom Leach