Gillispie 's second season again started out rocky in 2008 as the ' Cats fell to VMI in their season opener . The second game of the season saw the Wildcats fall to North Carolina by 19 points . UK rebounded to win 11 of their next 12 games , improving their record to 11 – 3 . On January 4 , the Wildcats lost a heart breaker to archrival Louisville 74 – 71 after a 25 ft. shot by Edgar Sosa with 2.3 seconds remaining in the game . Prior to the shot , UK was down 7 with 38.5 seconds left , and Jodie Meeks was fouled shooting a three , proceeded to make all three free throw shots , Patrick Patterson stole an inbound and passed it to Meeks who laid it in to bring the game to 71 – 69 with 29.6 left , and then an inbound pass went long and Meeks snatched the pass , drove to the hoop and was fouled , and then made both free throws to tie the game at 71 with 22.9 left . So all in all , UK and Meeks got seven points in about 15 seconds to tie the game . Kentucky disposed of Vanderbilt to win their SEC opener on January 10 , 70 – 60 . On January 13 , in a road game against Tennessee , Jodie Meeks set a new Kentucky scoring record by dropping 54 points on the Volunteers . This total bested Dan Issel 's 39-year-old scoring record by 1 point , and propelled UK to a 90 – 72 win and 2 – 0 start in conference play . Kentucky followed up this effort with a 68 – 45 victory at Georgia , improving to 14 – 4 on the season . With wins over Auburn and Alabama , Kentucky moved to 5 – 0 in the SEC . On January 26 , UK was ranked in the AP Poll ( 24th ) for the first time since week 1 of the 2007 – 08 season . UK promptly dropped 3 in a row ( to Ole Miss , South Carolina , and Mississippi State ) before rebounding at home with a thrilling 68 – 65 win over Florida . Jodie Meeks scored 23 points in the contest , including the fade-away contested 3-point basket with less than 5 seconds remaining to seal the win for UK . On Valentine 's Day Kentucky handily defeated Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena 79 – 63 behind another strong performance from Meeks . Meeks contributed 45 points and helped UK win despite the absence of Patrick Patterson ( sprained ankle ) . With the win , UK remained tied with South Carolina and Tennessee for 1st in the SEC East at 7 – 3 . Following the win UK completely collapsed , losing 5 of its last 6 games to finish the regular season 19 – 12 with an 8 – 8 SEC record . Entering the SEC tournament many felt UK would need to win the championship game to get into the NCAA tournament , but UK was defeated in the second game vs. LSU . With an unimpressive regular season and quick elimination in the SEC tournament , UK did indeed miss the NCAA tournament for the first time in 18 years and instead received an invitation to the NIT tournament where the team was defeated in the quarterfinal round against Notre Dame
SEC tournament
2009 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament
Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball