Billy D, Pelphrey once left Allen Fieldhouse in a 'Phog
Saturday, December 6, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Football, Chris Harry
LAWRENCE, Kan. -- The shoot-around Friday afternoon was Billy Donovan's first trip to iconic Phog Allen Fieldhouse in 25 years. The place is an absolute shrine to the game and the Kansas fans arguably the best in all of college. 
Earlier this week, Donovan was asked if he'd ever been to this basketball sanctuary, which he acknowledged with a simple, “yes,” and got a follow-up question about his memories of that trip.
“Not good. Not good,” he deadpanned. “I was there with Kentucky. We lost by 55.”
That is a fact.
The date was Dec. 9, 1989 and the Wildcats were annihilated 150-95 by the Jayhawks, making for the second-worst loss in UK's storied history, dating to an 87-17 drubbing against Central College (Iowa) in 1910.
Some background.
Donovan was a first-year assistant coach for Rick Pitino (his staff pictured above) after the coach left the New York Knicks to take over a Kentucky program torpedoed by major NCAA violations under predecessor Eddie Sutton. The Wildcats had six scholarship players, one of which was third-year sophomore John Pelphrey, now an assistant for Donovan at UF.
Pelphrey recalled going into the game feeling pretty good about his team. The Wildcats were 3-1, with the lone loss a tight 71-69 setback against top-10 Indiana in front of 50,000-plus at the Hoosier Dome one week earlier.
So the Cats took the court for pre-game warm-ups. He was singled out by an old man decked in Jayhawks garb. 
“Hey Pelphrey,” the gentleman said. “This ain't Indiana.”
No, it wasn't.
The game was fairly close, a margin of just five or six, with about five minutes to go in the first half when KU went on one of those runs the blew the roof off the "Phog" and pushed the Jayhawks out in front 80-61 at halftime.
Yes, 80 points in the first 20 minutes.
And it got worse from there.
“I started the game at the small forward spot and finished at the center spot because we were fouling guys out left and right -- and Coach Pitino would not stop pressing,” Pelphrey said. “I was in the back of the press, so by the time I'd get to halfcourt [Kansas] was dunking and by the time I'd get back to the top of the key on offense we'd be shooting a 3.”
Pelphrey finished with 20 points, 5-for-10 from the 3-point line and grabbed six rebounds. The Wildcats, who took 40 shots from the arc, got 32 from Derrick Miller, while KU -- remember Mark Randall, Kevin Prichard, Terry Brown and Rick Calloway -- had seven players in double-figures.
The Kentucky charter got home around 3 a.m., and Pitino made his players watch the entire game film, then took forward Daron Feldhaus out to the court for some individual instruction. Pelphrey, trying to be a good teammate to his good friend, went with them.
“Where you going?” Pitino asked.
“Coming with you, Coach,” Pelphrey said,
“Get out of here,” Pitino shot back. “I don't want to see anymore of you tonight.”
Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk!
