I was checking into Kentucky's basketball history and found on the unimpeachable source, Wikipedia, some essential information:
"In 1919,
George Buchheit became the new head coach of the Wildcats. An alumnus of the
University of Illinois, he brought with him a new system of basketball. The "Buchheit system" or "
Illinois system",
focused on defense and featured one player standing under each basket, while three roamed the court. Bucheit varied the system he learned in Illinois in one important way. While the Illinois system employed a
zone defense, Buchheit's system used an aggressive
man-to-man scheme. On offense, he used a complicated system of passing called the "zig-zag" or "figure eight" offense."
Also:
"Buchheit remained as coach through the 1924 season before moving on to coach
Trinity College (later
Duke University).
C.O. Applegran immediately followed Buchheit as coach.
Applegran had played for the University of Illinois, where he became an
All-American."
So: Kentucky AND Duke basketball actually owe their success (clearly, 100% of it) to Fighting Illini basketball.
Finally, we really need to get back to the "Illinois system" for defense after this past season's defensive debacle. And we might even check out the "complicated offense", the "figure eight" from the glory days as well.