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Tennessee basketball vs. Kentucky: Ranking Vols 5 wins at Rupp Arena

By Caleb Calhoun

LEXINGTON, KY - FEBRUARY 06: Grant Williams #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers and PJ Washington #25 of the Kentucky Wildcats battle for a loose ball during the game at Rupp Arena on February 6, 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LEXINGTON, KY - FEBRUARY 06: Grant Williams #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers and PJ Washington #25 of the Kentucky Wildcats battle for a loose ball during the game at Rupp Arena on February 6, 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Allsport USA/ALLSPORT
Photo by Allsport USA/ALLSPORT /

1. Jan. 12, 1977 (Overtime game)

Of all the great wins Tennessee basketball has enjoyed over the Kentucky Wildcats, it’s hard to find one that was sweeter than the one at Rupp Arena in 1977. Entering the game with a 9-1 record and 2-0 SEC record, the Wildcats were ranked No. 2 in the country.

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The Vols, meanwhile, were 9-2 and unranked despite a 3-0 SEC record. And this was to be their first trip to Rupp Arena. Well, in Ray Mears’s final season, Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld did what they would do during that time. They put on a show.

King scored 16 points and added an incredible 19 rebounds, while Grunfeld scored 22 points. But they also got help from Reggie Johnson, who had 18 points and 13 rebounds, along with Terry Crosby, who had 13 points.

It truly was a complete team victory that required overtime. But the upset was significant in numerous ways. This was the pinnacle of the Ernie and Bernie show, it gave UT bragging rights after beating Joe Hall’s team in their first trip to Rupp, and it put the Vols back in the Top 25.

UT would not fall out of the Top 25 for the rest of the year and go on to finish with a 16-2 SEC record and 22-5 regular season record overall. Even more significant, they held on to beat the Wildcats 81-79 at home in the second to last game of the year.

The result of those two games left both teams with identical SEC records. But Tennessee basketball was able to claim the SEC Championship due to the head to head tiebreaker, which is another reason why this is the most significant win for the Vols at Rupp Arena in school history.

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They couldn’t translate that success to the NCAA Tournament, being upset by Syracuse in the first round that year. But to be fair, they were dealing with the distraction of Ray Mears’s health issues limiting what he could do coaching. The success of winning the SEC and sweeping Kentucky still make this the greatest win the Vols ever had at Rupp Arena.

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