I've heard this stat mentioned many times on television that the meeting between Kentucky and Wisconsin is just the 3rd time in NCAA history where 2 teams have met in the national semifinals in consecutive years. That is a correct stat as it happened in 1959-60 and in 1961-62. In both of those instances, the same team won both games. I thought I would stretch it out even further to any time 2 teams met in the Final Four (semis or finals) in consecutive years, and you find that has happened a total of 5 times:
1959: California 64, Cincinnati 58
1960: California 77, Cincinnati 69
1961: Cincinnati 70, Ohio State 65
1962: Cincinnati 71, Ohio State 59
1967: UCLA 73, Houston 58
1968: UCLA 101, Houston 69
1990: UNLV 103, Duke 73
1991: Duke 79, UNLV 77
2006: Florida 73, UCLA 57
2007: Florida 76, UCLA 66
In 4 of the 5 occasions, the same team has won both games. And consider in 3 of those 4 instances, the 2nd meeting between the 2 teams resulted in a greater margin of victory than the first time. What this shows to me is a couple things. First of all, revenge games don't exist over the course of 2 seasons. By that time, some of players have changed and I am sure the sting of the loss has worn off much more than when it occurs in the same season. Secondly, more often than not the better team wins. In all of the cases above (sans Duke-UNLV) the better team won both matchups. There were no upsets there. Kentucky, on paper, is the better team. History shows us that UK fans should feel quite confident going into Saturday.
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