Perfect Survivors: Kentucky Escapes Epic Upset by Irish to Preserve 40-0 Dream

CLEVELAND — What could prove to be the greatest collection of basketball talent on one college roster ever was not supposed to look like this.

Rattled. Frightened. Desperate.

“We were just fighting to stay in the game,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said.

Raise your hand if you ever imagined hearing that sentence come out of Calipari about this team.

It was true, though. Notre Dame outslugged, outsmarted and outplayed Kentucky most of Saturday night in the Midwest Region final. At times in the second half, it appeared as if the veteran Irish team was pulling away from Kentucky.

And yet, somehow, the final scene isn’t the dazed and frustrated expressions on the faces of Kentucky players and fans that we witnessed for nearly two hours. Kentucky survived, 68-66, and moved within two wins of a national championship and 40-0 record. The Wildcats advance to their 17th Final Four—and fourth in the last five years—and will face Wisconsin in the national semifinals next Saturday in Indianapolis.

This might have been the game Kentucky was supposed to lose. There always seems to be one for every team chasing elite history.

“My mind is never on we may lose,” Calipari said. “My whole mindset all the time is how are we going to win, how do we win this game. That's all I keep saying to myself, ‘How do we win the game?’ I want them to know we're not playing not to lose; we play to win. That means be aggressive offensively. And so I'm telling you, I was trying every combination I could just to keep us in the game.”

No doubt, though, the pressure for perfection is weighing on the Wildcats. Willie Cauley-Stein said they were feeling it with about seven minutes remaining. The Irish, who went on a 13-4 run in the second half, led by six at the six-minute mark.

“Frustrating, man,” Kentucky guard Tyler Ulis said. “They were hitting a lot of open shots and we were breaking down defensively, which we don’t normally do. They played a great game. They were making the right passes, hitting the right shots, making the right reads.”

Sure were. It just had that feel. An upset for the ages.

Strange things happen when perfection is on the line in sports. David Tyree’s helmet catch against the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. Duke shocks unbeatable UNLV in 1991.

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

When Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant answered Aaron Harrison’s three-point bomb with 2:35 left, it really seemed as if the Irish would become Kentucky’s David Tyree.

But Kentucky kept surviving. The Wildcats made their last nine field goals and stopped Notre Dame when it mattered most—its final three possessions, including a potential game-winning three-pointer from Grant at the buzzer.

Why, after such struggles stopping Notre Dame all night, was Kentucky able to do it on the final three possessions?

“Desperation, probably,” said Andrew Harrison, whose two free throws with six seconds left won the game. “We had no choice or we were going to lose.”

Quicken Loans Arena, overtaken by UK fans, erupted in relief when the final buzzer blared. Just minutes after one of the biggest upsets in the history of college hoops looked probable, the Kentucky players were wearing championship hats, cutting down nets and taking photos with their families on the court.

David Richard/Associated Press

Karl Anthony-Towns carried Kentucky with 25 points and carried the Midwest Region championship trophy above his head to the postgame interview room. He led his teammates through a gaggle of reporters, jokingly hollering, “Excuse me, VIPs coming through.”

What could prove to be the greatest collection of basketball talent on one college roster ever was supposed to look like this.

Exactly like this.

“They do have a will to win, and I know that,” Calipari said. “I know that, I've coached them, I know they'll make plays. It's just a matter of you have to keep the game close enough so they can.”

Calipari later added, “We’re undefeated but we’re not perfect.”

Kentucky did, however, dodge its David Tyree moment perfectly.

Derek Samson has been an editor and writer in the sports media industry for nearly 20 years. He has worked at Yahoo Sports, USA Today and Sporting News, among other outlets. All quotes for this story were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.