Kentucky basketball fans may have a legitimate reason to be frustrated after seeing where the legendary 2011-12 Wildcats landed in a recent ranking of the best college basketball teams of the 21st century.
CBS Sports recently surveyed 100 college basketball coaches to determine which teams they believed were the greatest of the century. Considering Kentucky’s incredible 2011-12 championship run, many expected Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s team to be near the very top.
Instead, the Wildcats came in at No. 6.
Even more surprising, Kentucky’s 2014-15 team ranked No. 7 despite finishing that season without a national championship.
The top five teams in the coaches’ poll were the 2023-24 UConn Huskies, 2000-01 Duke Blue Devils, 2025-26 Michigan Wolverines, 2017-18 Villanova Wildcats and 2006-07 Florida Gators.
The 2011-12 Kentucky team certainly has a strong case for a higher spot.
John Calipari’s squad finished the season 38-2 and captured Kentucky’s eighth national championship. The Wildcats’ only regular-season loss came at Indiana on Christian Watford’s famous buzzer-beating three-pointer. Their other defeat came against Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament.
Outside of those two setbacks, Kentucky was incredibly difficult to beat.
The roster was also loaded with future NBA talent.
Anthony Davis emerged as one of the most dominant freshmen in college basketball history and was selected No. 1 overall in the 2012 NBA Draft. Kidd-Gilchrist followed him at No. 2.
Doron Lamb provided elite shooting, while Terrence Jones and Marquis Teague were also selected in the first round. Darius Miller eventually became another member of the team to reach the NBA.
One coach quoted in the survey acknowledged just how dominant that Kentucky squad was.
“They had only two losses, right? One was at the buzzer [at Indiana]. They had the first and second picks in that draft. You look at their tournament run, their championship game — they dominated another really good team.”
Kentucky’s 2014-15 team received plenty of praise as well, with one coach calling it “the most dominant team of the last 25 years.”
That squad famously went 38-0 before losing to Wisconsin in the Final Four, ending its bid for an undefeated national championship season.
The roster featured Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, Willie Cauley-Stein, Trey Lyles, Tyler Ulis and several other future NBA players.
Still, because that team failed to win the national championship, its No. 7 ranking is easier to understand.
The bigger question is whether the 2011-12 Wildcats deserved to be outside the top five.
With a 38-2 record, two top-two NBA Draft picks, multiple future professionals and a national championship, Kentucky has perhaps the strongest résumé of any team on the list.
For Wildcats fans, the debate is simple: if winning the championship is supposed to matter, how did the 2011-12 Kentucky team not make the top five?
The coaches have spoken. Now Big Blue Nation gets to decide whether they got it right.
