| # | Name | Pos | Class | Ht. | Wt. | Hometown (School) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #12 | Ralph Beard (L) | G | Jr. | 5-10 | 175 | Louisville, KY (Male) | All-American [Consensus (1st), AP (1st), NABC (1st), Converse (1st), True Magazine (1st), Helms (1st)]; All-SEC [First Team]; All-SEC Tournament; |
| #15 | Alex Groza (L) | C | Jr. | 6-7 | 220 | Martins Ferry, OH (High) | All-American [Consensus (2nd), AP (2nd), NABC (2nd), Converse (1st), True Magazine (2nd), Helms (2nd)]; NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player; NCAA Regional Most Outstanding Player; All-SEC [First Team]; All-SEC Tournament; |
| #27 | Wallace Jones (L) | F-C | Jr. | 6-4 | 205 | Harlan, KY (High) | All-American [Converse (3rd), True Magazine (3rd)]; All-SEC [First Team]; All-SEC Tournament; |
| #25 | Jim Line (L) | F | So. | 6-2 | 185 | Akron, OH (North) | - |
| #26 | Ken Rollins (L) | G | Sr. | 6-0 | 175 | Wickliffe, KY (High) | All-SEC [First Team]; All-SEC Tournament; |
| #23 | Cliff Barker (L) | G-F | Jr. | 6-2 | 185 | Yorktown, IN (High) | All-SEC [Second Team]; All-SEC Tournament; |
| #18 | Dale Barnstable (L) | F-G | So. | 6-3 | 175 | Antioch, IL (High) | - |
| #14 | Joe Holland (L) | F | Jr. | 6-4 | 190 | Benton, KY (High) | - |
| #19 | Jack Parkinson (L) | G | Sr. | 6-0 | 175 | Yorktown, IN (High) | - |
| #19 | Walter Hirsch | F | Fr. | 6-4 | 180 | Dayton, OH (Northridge) | - |
| #7 | Albert Cummins | G | So. | 5-10 | 160 | Brooksville, KY (High) | - |
| #13 | Roger Day | F | Fr. | 6-2 | 170 | Frostburg, MD (Beall) | - |
| - | Mike Homa | F | Fr. | 5-11 | - | Fairfield, CT (Roger Ludlowe) | - |
| #30 | James Jordan (L) | F | Sr. | 6-3 | 185 | Chester, WV (High) | - |
| #14 | Garland Townes | G | Fr. | 6-0 | 170 | Hazard, KY | - |
| - | Will Smethers | G | Fr. | 6-2 | 180 | Middletown, OH (High) | - |
| #17 | Robert Henne | G | Fr. | 6-1 | 170 | Bremen, IN (High) | - |
| #20 | Kenton Campbell | C | Sr. | 6-4 | 195 | Newark, OH (High) | - |
| #5 | John Stough (L) | G | So. | 6-0 | 170 | Montgomery, AL (Sidney Lanier) | - |
| Schedule | Player Statistics | Game Statistics |
 |
1947-48 Squad |
Front Row: (l to r): Head Coach Adolph Rupp, Johnny Stough, Ralph Beard, Kenneth Rollins, Cliff Barker, Dale Barnstable, Assistant Coach Harry Lancaster |
Season Review - Basketball (Kentuckian)
The State of Kentucky is famous for its thoroughbreds and tobacco, for its hillbillies and sugar-cured hams, for its colonels and corn, for its beautiful belles and, probably most of all for its basketball teams.
The University of Kentucky's Wildcats started the 1947-48 season on November 29 and, in the four-month campaign, went on to win the distinction of "one of the greatest collegiate basketball teams of all time," as the Blue and White captured 36 victories in the strenuous 39-game season.
Only defeats by Temple University, Notre Dame and the Phillips 66 Oilers, the National AAU champions, marred the Kentucky record. Mixed with these contests were triumphs over such notable teams as Holy Cross, Baylor, DePaul, Columbia, St. John's, and the NIAB winners, the Louisville Cardinals.
The Fayette County Felines started the season taking seven consecutive wins, then dropped a one-point decision to Temple in Philadelphia. Bouncing back, the Cats won 11 more encounters before being upset by the strong Notre Dame quintet of South Bend. Then 18 more teams in a row were whipped by the Wildcats before they lost in the Olympic Trials finals to the Phillips squad.
In their home lair, Alumni gym, the Kentucky Kats took all 11 frays and now boost a mark of 64 consecutive victories in UK'S Euclid Avenue cage arena.
The famed Zip Kids of the Tobacco State finished the regular season with a 27-2 record. They copped the Southeastern Conference crown in Louisville early in March and went to the NCAA Tournament in New York with a mark of 31 wins and 2 defeats.
In the NCAA meet, the wiry Wildcats swept past Columbia, Holy Cross and Baylor to capture the championship honors and became only the second team in history to have won the NCAA and the National Invitational titles. Utah is the other team.
Then came the Olympic Trials, which were also held in the Mecca of basketball, New York City's Madison Square Garden. Capacity crowds saw the smooth-clicking "Caintucky" combine shoot past Louisville in the opening round and Baylor in the semi-finals.
In the finals, Kentucky met the winners of the opposite bracket, the Phillips Oilers of Bartlettsville, Oklahoma, who had clipped the National YMCA champ, Prospect Park of Brooklyn, and then the Denver Nuggets, to move into the title game with Kentucky.
The 40-minute skirmish that was played between the Oilers and the Wildcats has been described by the New York sports scribes as "perhaps the greatest basketball game ever staged in the history of the sport."
Led by the phenomenal guard, Ralph Beard, the Cats nearly upset the AAU champions, winners of 62 games in 65 contests for the season, but it was sevenfooter Bob Kurland who turned the tide in the dying minutes of the unforgettable fracas. "Foothills" Kurland, with the score 47-45, (Kentucky), dumped in three quick goals while the scrapping Cats hit for one.
The thrilling game ended, Phillips 53, Kentucky 49.
