Kentucky Wildcats: The First to 2,000 Wins

Currently with 1,998 wins, the University of Kentucky needs two more victories to become the first NCAA basketball team to outscore their opponents 2,000 times.

The closest team to the Wildcats is the Tarheels, with 1,992 wins.

This year's Kentucky team is as good as all the others that contributed to the current 1,998 wins.

This is the first year since 1930-31 that Kentucky and their first year head coach have began the season 10-0.

The last coach to win his first 10 games in his first year with the Wildcats was Kentucky’s Hall of Fame coach Adolph Rupp.

In 2009, head coach John Calipari has set Kentucky and their young and talented group of freshmen to be on pace for a record of 15-0 heading into SEC play Jan. 9.

To end the month of December and the 2009 year, the Wildcats will face four opponents at home in 10 days: Austin Peay (7-4) on the 19th, Drexel (5-5) on the 22nd, Long Beach State (5-4) on the 23rd, and Hartford (2-9) on the 29th.

If all goes as planned, at the beginning of the 2010, Kentucky could easily be 14-0 with 2,002 university wins.

Calipari has done an effective job molding his freshmen into a winning system on a team with returning talent.  

What’s even more impressive about Calipari and his young bunch is that he has them playing at a high level of intensity and skill.

Freshman DeMarcus Cousins has followed the lead of junior forward Patrick Patterson, who led the SEC last year with 15 double-doubles, and already has four double-doubles, trailing Patterson’s five.  

Freshman guard Eric Bledsoe will have to cut down on his early foul troubles and turnovers, but the kid has a keen sense of when to step up and make big plays.

Bledsoe is averaging double-digit points, 11.1 ppg, and is second on the team with three assists per game while leading the 'Cats in scoring twice this year.

Speaking of freshmen leading Kentucky in scoring, John Wall has led the Wildcats in scoring in half of the games played. With one game-winner under his belt, Wall leads the team in scoring and assists, with 18.1 ppg and with 7 apg, respectively.

In his 10 game career as a freshman, Wall has shown improvements on top of his already dominating play.

The country’s top high school prospect has lived up to his hype by receiving the SEC Freshman of the Week for his fourth straight week—the first time in league history a freshman has won the weekly award four consecutive weeks. The only other freshman to win the weekly honor was Eric Bledsoe in the first week.

After listening to Calipari discuss Wall’s game and where he is at in his career, he explained that Wall’s skills are more advanced at this point in his career than compared to recent freshman greats like Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans (guards that played for Calipari).

With that being said, the SEC will have their hands full come conference time, as the No. 4 Wildcats look to become the first Kentucky team, outside the Rupp Era, to begin conference play undefeated.