Former UK All-American Jack Givens - can Kentucky go undefeated?

By: LARRY VAUGHT

When Kentucky started Southeastern Conference play unbeaten during the 1977-78 season, All-American Jack Givens can never remember the players talking about an unbeaten season.

“We went into the SEC thinking we had a chance to win every game. We had experience with four seniors but we knew how difficult it would be to get through the SEC without a loss. Our focus was on winning the national championship more so than going unbeaten,” said Givens.

The Cats did win the 1978 national title and finished the season 30-2.

Kentucky’s current team certainly should have the same focus after needing overtime to beat Ole Miss at home Tuesday and then double overtime to win at Texas A&M Saturday even though the Aggies played without their best player due to an injury.

In fairness to the current Cats, the players have not openly talked about going unbeaten or a perfect season. They have not denied they believe it can be done when asked, but they are not the ones constantly harping on perfection. Instead, that has been media members and fans on social media.

Givens and his teammates didn’t have to worry about social media. Plus, Indiana had gone unbeaten in the 1975-76 season, so having a perfect mark in early January was not a national story like it has been for UK. Givens’ Cats won their first 14 games, including a showdown with then No. 4 Notre Dame, before losing 78-62 at Alabama in late January. UK later beat Alabama by 13 points at home. About three weeks later UK lost 95-94 in overtime at LSU, a team it had defeated by 20 points at home.

“It has been so long since Indiana went unbeaten, any time a team gets close or has the talent this Kentucky team has there is going to be talk,” Givens said. “I don’t know if the SEC is as tough as when we played. But I can see why because of UK’s talent and how good the team has been in certain game that there has been so much talk of going undefeated for a whole season.”

Of course, Givens’ team didn’t go unbeaten. It won the national title, but lost at Alabama and a few weeks later lost in overtime at LSU.

“Social media changes everything. Everybody has an opinion and makes it known,” Givens said. “It opens a way for a team like Kentucky to be followed minute by minute for people into that thing. There are so many ways to get your opinion out.

“It focuses more attention on a team like Kentucky. In the long run, the focus of any team is winning a national championship. If you lose a game along the way your season is not over unless it comes in the NCAA Tournament. Until then if you lose a game, so what. Just get better and keep going.”

Givens has no doubts the focus for this team is the championship, not a perfect season.

“For the players, you would like to have the perfect year. That’s one of those things you might not even realize how big it is. It has been about 40 years since a team did it and might be another 40 years before it happens again,” Givens said. “But I don’t think you pay that much attention to it as a player. You focus on each game. You don’t look at the whole schedule. Players don’t talk about things like that, or shouldn’t. We just want to play and win every game we can.”

So is it even realistic to talk about an unbeaten season, especially after overtime games to open SEC play?

“I look at talent on this team and the way Calipari prepares and can see how this team could win them all,” Givens said. “I could see that happening. But there will be off night. You might have another team play Kentucky like Ole Miss did making shots, getting rebounds and doing all good things. It’s tough on the road. Every arena is going to be super charged for UK. I do like UK’s chances better because they have some experienced players.

“I played against the last team to go undefeated. I remember all the elements that Indiana team had. With guys now one-and-done or two-and-done, I just don’t know if another team will ever have that mix Indiana had.”

Givens admits he does compare UK teams to the ones he played on.

“We scored a lot, but we defended. We were physical. We beat teams down. We made that experience for the other team as difficult as we could,” Givens said. “This team defends with a purpose, or has most games. They not only stop a team, but stop a team in a way they don’t want to come back in the paint when they are on. This team has made a believer of me that the possibilities of running the table are there. I would like the chances better if Alex (Poythress) was not hurt and out for the year, but the talent and athleticism is there at every position. And I really like this team due to its defense.”

Givens said his team “corrected mistakes we made” after losses at Alabama and LSU.

“Correcting mistakes is the key if you do lose,” Givens said. “You have to be able to put the loss out of your mind and get ready for the next game. My freshman year when we got to the Final Four, we lost big to Indiana early in the year and corrected our mistakes and kept getting better. We had one big letdown on the road at Florida, but that was it. You can’t let one loss turn into two, three or four like the team did last year.”

But Givens is not one who thinks losing a game takes pressure off. He believes winning is always best.

“I think any time you lose a game you expose something to everyone else on your schedule,” Givens said. “If you expose things, believe me it will come back on you.

“Alabama beat us with a three-guard offense and quickness kind of like Ole Miss did to this team. We didn’t match up well with that. LSU did pretty much the same thing and went small. Fortunately we didn’t play a lot of teams that could go small with players that good. The next team we faced like that was Arkansas (in the Final Four) and that was our toughest game. So if Alabama had not gone three guards and beat us, maybe LSU and Arkansas would never have done it.

“I hear people talk about it is good to lose one. I absolutely do not agree with that. If you lose, you just expose something and against good teams, you do not want to give them any more ammunition. It’s always best just to keep winning.”