NCAA.com names 2012 Wildcats the Team of the Decade

The 2012 Anthony Davis-led Kentucky Wildcats has been named the Team of the Decade by NCAA.com’s Andy Katz. Katz labeled in top-ten teams of the decade on the March Madness 365 podcast.

That 2011-2012 team was led by Davis, yet featured multiple first-round picks in the following NBA Draft.

It was a team loaded with talent spearheaded by the nation’s best big man. However, at the end of the day, it was Doron Lamb’s MVP performance in the title game that solidified the team’s spot on the list.

The Wildcats, that season, went 16-0 in conference play and ended the year 38-2. The only blemishes on their resume were a last-second loss to Indiana and a close loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC championship game.

They won the conference’s regular season title and were also eventually crowned NCAA Champions.

They were able to down Indiana, a team that had beat them earlier in the year, Baylor, and cross-state rival Louisville in route to meeting Kansas in the national title game.

Although Davis, the future All-Pro center, went just 1-for-10, they still found a way to defeat the Thomas Robinson-led Jayhawks by eight to clinch the Wildcats’ eighth national title.

2018 Villanova, 2010 Duke, 2019 Virginia, 2015 Duke, 2017 North Carolina, 2016 Villanova, 2013 Louisville, 2011 Uconn and 2014 Uconn rounded out 2-10 in that order. That said, it’s surprising not to see the 2015 Kentucky Wildcats on that list.

They went an unheard of 38-1. Willie Cauley-Stein, the Harrison brothers, Karl-Anthony Towns and Devin Booker could’ve had the top spot had they not lost that final four matchup to Wisconsin.

Those two teams were really the only two from this past decade that Katz could’ve chosen.