The Kentucky Wildcats are nicknamed “Big Blue for a reason. No team in college basketball has more wins (2130) or higher winning percentage (.762) than the University of Kentucky. Its 52 NCAA Tournament appearances and 111 tournament wins are also tops in college basketball and only UCLA has more National Championships than your Kentucky Wildcats (8).
It’s the program that dominates the first round of the NBA Draft, and the McDonald’s All-American game, year-in and year-out.
This tradition of dominance has inspired the Nike Hyper Elite Dominance uniform that Kentucky basketball will debut tomorrow against the University of Florida.
The Nike Dominance Kentucky Wildcats uniform is inspired by success on the court that stems back all the way to the 1920-1921 season. Known as the “Wonder Team”, they won the first ever Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association Tournament. This Kentucky Wildcats uniform also includes inspiration from the 1948-49 team up to the present Kentucky Wildcats, which Coach John Calipari said was the most over-analyzed team in the history of sports. Not just in Kentucky Wildcats basketball, or in all of college basketball, but all of sports.
He does have a point.
Look at the way we over-analyze Julius Randle.
Anyways, The Kentucky Wildcats jersey features rounded neckline with bonded taping along with the 1948 “Kentucky” graphics. The side of the short included eight bars (one for each championship) along with a short side stripe inspired from Kentucky’s first championship. The school’s current UK logo is present at the bottom of the short.
Nike created the uniforms with performance and innovation at the forefront. The jersey has a lightweight sphere fabrication, with flocking detail added at the interior of the neck for sweat management. The jersey features a unique articulated armhole system to maximize the range of motion for the player.
The #14 Kentucky Wildcats take on their hated SEC rivals, #3 Florida tomorrow night at Historic Rupp Arena. College Gameday will be there for this important conference showdown. As will these special retro Kentucky Wildcats uniforms.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)