Memphis Now Just Four Wins from Conference Streak Record
Tigers Extend C-USA Regular Season Win Streak to 49, and 61 Including Conference Tourney
By Carl Danbury (Updated 3-14-09)

The Memphis Tigers extended their streak to 61 consecutive conference wins including tournament play, and won their fourth straight C-USA tournament by beating Tulane, Houston and Tulsa this weekend. John Calipari's squad and likely No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament won their 25th straight game of the season to run their record to 31-3 overall, and 19-0 in C-USA regular season and tournament play.

The Tigers will begin the 2009-10 season needing four straight C-USA wins to establish a new record for consecutive conference wins held by the Kentucky Wildcats from 1945-50. With two C-USA wins, Memphis will exceed the consecutive regular season record for conference wins established by UCLA from 1970-74 under John Wooden.

Davidson's Southern Conference regular season win streak ended at 43 games early this season with a loss to College of Charleston at home. The Wildcats streak ended one win shy of tying the record of 44 consecutive wins set by West Virginia between 1956-60. Including SoCon tournament games, Bob McKillop's Wildcats had won 49 in a row.

While those streaks are mighty impressive, from Jan. 22, 1945 through Jan. 16, 1950, the University of Kentucky won 64 consecutive SEC regular season and conference tournament games. Included in the streak were 44 regular season games and 20 SEC tournament games.

After Georgia snapped the Cats' winning streak Jan. 17 in Athens, Kentucky embarked on another 29-game SEC winning streak until Vanderbilt beat them 61-57 in the SEC Tournament Finals March 3, 1951 in Louisville. The loss also snapped a 30-game SEC tournament game winning streak.

After the loss to Vandy, the Cats won the NCAA title and then ran off another 34 consecutive SEC wins. That's an amazing record of 127 wins in 129 SEC games.

West Virginia, under head coach Fred Schaus, won 44 regular season games in a row and 15 consecutive Southern Conference tournament games for a streak of 59 straight against then league members Furman, Richmond, VMI, George Washington, Washington & Lee, The Citadel, Virginia Tech, and the team that broke the streak, William & Mary.

The Mountaineers were led on the floor during those years by Jerry West, Rod Hundley and Lloyd Sharrar.

UCLA has had many impressive streaks in their history with John Wooden on the bench. Among them are a 50-game winning streak in Pac-8 regular season play from 1970-1974, which came on the heels of a 45-game conference streak from 1966-69. The most revered streak the Bruins established was their unparalled streak of 38 NCAA Tournament wins, which was ended by the 1974 N.C. State national championship team.

Once beaten by the Wolfpack, UCLA went on to win its next six NCAA tourney games, posting a 44-1 record from the 1963-64 season to 1974-75.

Conference Win Streak (Regular Season Only)
Team    Years    Streak
UCLA    1970-74    50
Memphis    2006-pres.    49
Penn    1992-96    48
UCLA    1966-69    45
Kentucky    1945-50    44
West Virginia 1956-60    44
Davidson    2007-2009    44
UNLV    1990-93    40
UCLA    1963-66    36

Conference Win Streak (Regular Season + Tournament)*
Team    Years    Streak
Kentucky    1945-50    64
Memphis    2006-pres.    61
West Virginia 1956-60    59
Davidson    2007-2009    49
UNLV    1990-93    46

* UCLA is not on this list because they did not play a postseason league tournament during those seasons

Editor's Note: Memphis Basketball SID Lamar Chance contributed to this report.