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With North Carolina's loss to UNLV over the weekend, the Kentucky Wildcats are your #1 team in the country per the Associated Press.
That number 1 team faces St. John's this Thursday at home in Lexington, KY, as part of the 12-team Big East/ SEC Challenge.
On paper, the matchup looks like a potential drubbing for the Red Storm. St. John's has a seven-man rotation and a 4-3 record after this weekend's loss to Northeastern. Meanwhile, Kentucky continues to beat on opponents with a wealth of talented freshmen and sophomores who can run, score, and defend with the best.
But it's still early in the college hoops season.
Before St. John's fans write the game off as an L because of that coveted number in front of Kentucky's name, note that Steve Lavin has slain a quartet of #1 ranked giants in his time at UCLA. And in the years as a head coach with the Bruins and with St. John's, he's taken out a number of top-10 teams and St. John's - usually tipping off with the less-favored squad.
One of Lavin's great claims to fame while coaching UCLA was his ability to keep the pitchforks at bay by knocking off top-ranked teams. (It was the early losses to less-heralded foes that got Bruin Nation in a tizzy over the state of their hoops program.)
Below, Lavin's year-by-year wins and losses against #1 teams (often Arizona and Stanford back then) and against top-10 teams.
Data taken from Statsheet.
|
Year
|
#1s Faced
|
Wins vs #1
|
#Top10s faced
|
Wins vs Top-10
|
Team (AP Rank, W/L) |
|
96-97
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
2
|
Kansas (1, L) |
| Arizona (6, W) | |||||
| Louisville (6, L) | |||||
| Duke (6, W) | |||||
| Minnesota (3, L) | |||||
|
97-98
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
1
|
North Carolina (4, L) |
| New Mexico (8, W) | |||||
| Arizona (8, L) | |||||
| Stanford (7, L) | |||||
| Duke (2, L) | |||||
| Arizona (2, L) | |||||
| Kentucky (5, L) | |||||
|
98-99
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
1
|
Maryland (5, L) |
| Kentucky (4, L) | |||||
| Arizona (6, W) | |||||
| Stanford (4, L) | |||||
| Stanford (6, L) | |||||
|
99-00
|
1
|
1
|
6
|
1
|
Arizona (2, L) |
| Stanford (2, L) | |||||
| Syracuse (4, L) | |||||
| Arizona (4, L) | |||||
| Stanford (1, W) | |||||
| Iowa State (6, L) | |||||
|
00-01
|
3
|
1
|
5
|
2
|
Kansas (7, L) |
| Stanford (1, W) | |||||
| Arizona (8, W) | |||||
| Stanford (1, L) | |||||
| Duke (1, L) | |||||
|
01-02
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
4
|
Kansas (1, W) |
| Arizona (9, W) | |||||
| Stanford (10, W) | |||||
| Cincinnati (5, W) | |||||
|
02-03
|
2
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
Duke (6, L) |
| Arizona (2, L) | |||||
| Arizona (1, L) | |||||
| Arizona (1, W) | |||||
|
At UCLA
|
8
|
4
|
36
|
12
|
|
|
St. John's
|
#1s Faced
|
Wins vs #1
|
#Top10s faced
|
Wins vs Top-10
|
Team (AP Rank, W/L) |
|
10-11
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
5
|
Georgetown (9, W) |
| Syracuse (4, L) | |||||
| Notre Dame (9, W) | |||||
| Duke (3, W) | |||||
| Connecticut (10, W) | |||||
| Pittsburgh (4, W) |
Steve Lavin was 4 for 4 against #1 ranked teams at UCLA, with wins over Stanford twice, Arizona once, and Kansas once. Of course, one could point out that Lavin's wins over top ten opponents often took place after December, when his team has started to gel; only the New Mexico win came before the calendar turned over.
But keep in mind: it's entirely possible that Lavin pulls a tricky game plan out of the coaching hat to defeat the Wildcats.
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