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WILDCATS

UK Senior Day: Walk-ons witnesses to history

Kyle Tucker
@KyleTucker_CJ
UK guard Sam Malone. Sept. 4, 2014

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Might as well get right to it, the question University of Kentucky senior walk-ons Sam Malone and Brian Long are asked most often: Who'd win between the 2012 national champion Wildcats and this 2015 version that will try to complete an undefeated regular season Saturday against Florida?

"It's yet to be seen," Malone said. "In 2012, we took care of business in the tournament, and that's really what matters most. So we'll see. I think they're kind of two different styles of play. In 2012, a lot of people forget we had our ups and downs throughout the year. This year, we've kind of been rolling the whole time."

To that point, while Long also requests that you "ask me in a couple months" which team was better, he balks at 2012 star Anthony Davis saying recently his Cats would "destroy" these.

"Nah," Long said, "I don't think anyone could destroy this team. We're really deep and very unselfish and we've played real well all year. We don't have Anthony Davis on this team, but still, nonetheless …"

That Long and Malone are the only guys on the roster equipped to talk about this topic speaks to two things: there are no scholarship players left in Lexington for Saturday's Senior Day festivities (this would be Davis' big day had he stayed four years) and the walk-on pair has been witness to one of the most remarkable runs in Kentucky's rich history.

The number of NBA draft picks they've played with – perhaps as many as 20 by the time it all shakes out – is almost as high as the number of games they've lost in four years. Just 25 of those, compared to 118 wins. They've been teammates with past lottery picks Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Nerlens Noel and Julius Randle, and projected lottery picks Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein and Devin Booker.

Davis is already an NBA All-Star and making a case for best basketball player in the world.

"It's kind of crazy to see how they were just on this team three years ago and now they're starters in the NBA and going to be in the playoffs and all this other stuff," Long said. "It's weird to see, but it's great to see them all succeed and have a great career."

As for Long and Malone's UK careers, it's quite possible that by the end of them they will have experienced three Final Fours, two national championships and the first undefeated season by a Division I team in 39 years. There was also that dramatic dip – which now seems more like an outlying blip – when UK was bounced in the first round of the NIT by Robert Morris in 2013.

"I've seen the ups and the downs," Malone said. "People forget, last year our heads were almost under water (before) we were able to make a big run. Freshman year, I thought it was going to be like that every year. Then the next year … it was totally different. But we just stuck with our game plan and what we were doing as far as the program, and we're back to where we want to be."

The Cats (30-0) will go for history Saturday against the Gators. No major-conference team has finished the regular season unblemished since Indiana in 1976. Malone, Long and Tod Lanter, who walked on as a sophomore, will be honored before the game at Rupp Arena.

As for the popular practice of starting seniors in their final home game: "Unless 12 other people get a crippling flu, I don't think we're going to start," Malone said. The trio has just a dozen career points combined. But that doesn't matter. They have a front-row seat for something they'll someday tell grandchildren about.

"It's already going to be a very memorable season," Lanter said, but "hopefully we can make something out of this to where it's remembered forever. We've taken a different approach to this than most teams, I think. We want to establish a dominance every game where people can't say, 'Well, maybe this team was better.' No, we want to be the elite, the team that made it farther than anybody else has – and with a dominance."

Maybe then Malone and Long wouldn't have to answer that pesky 2012 vs. 2015 question anymore.

Kyle Tucker can be reached at (502) 582-4361. Follow him on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ.

UK'S NBA DRAFT PICKS SINCE 2012

2012 – No. 1 Anthony Davis, No. 2 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, No. 18 Terrence Jones, No. 29 Marquis Teague, No. 42 Doron Lamb, No. 46 Darius Miller

2013 – No. 6 Nerlens Noel, No. 29 Archie Goodwin

2014 – No. 7 Julius Randle, No. 17 James Young

UK'S PROJECTED NBA DRAFT PICKS

(Draft Express.com)

2015 – No. 2 Karl-Anthony Towns, No. 7 Willie Cauley-Stein, No. 14 Devin Booker, No. 25 Trey Lyles, No. 36 Dakari Johnson, No. 51 Andrew Harrison

2016 – No. 27 Marcus Lee, No. 49 Alex Poythress

* Not listed: Aaron Harrison, Tyler Ulis, both of whom are considered legitimate draft prospects.