Another year, so much to look back on.

Every season of Kentucky basketball is filled with memorable moments, the good and bad, and more than a little drama that grips the fan base for weeks at a time.

Here's a look back at the highs, lows, worst and best.

Best Win

Rarely does Kentucky have the opportunity to host the No. 1 team in the country at Rupp Arena but that's what happened on February 16 when the top-ranked Tennessee Volunteers carried arguably its best team in program history into Lexington. It went about as well as Florida's 2003 venture into Rupp went for the Cats' opposition. Big Blue ran Big Orange out of the gym in an 86-69 blowout. It was one of the best Rupp Arena atmospheres in some time.

Tennessee got contributions from its trio of Grant Williams, Jordan Bone and Admiral Schofield, but almost nothing from everyone else. PJ Washington and Keldon Johnson combined to score 42 points on 17/26 shooting and Kentucky dominated the paint and the boards.

Worst Loss

There's really no competition here. College basketball rarely opens in style the way it did on November 6 in the Champions Classic. Kentucky was considered a national title favorite because it figured to be one of John Calipari's more experienced teams and one that had romped through professional teams in a summer trip to the Bahamas. Duke had freshman stars Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish and RJ Barrett.

Most basketball analysts and experts picked Kentucky to win a close game but the result was a shock: Duke 118, Kentucky 84. Nobody saw that coming. The Wildcats were woefully unprepared for the game defensively and it was Zion Williamson's coming out party on the national stage. The Blue Devils won the first half 59-42 and won the second half by the same margin in a game that was never competitive and devolved into an embarrassing dunk contest for Mike Krzyzewski's team. It was humbling for Kentucky's players and humiliating for the fan base.

Best Stretch

There are a couple of possibilities here but the best stretch of the season for Kentucky in hindsight may have been its three games after the surprising overtime loss to Seton Hall.

Kentucky defeated Utah (88-61), North Carolina (80-72) and Louisville (71-58) over a two-week stretch spanning December 15 through December 29 on the calendar before the start of the new year. There was a home blowout, a neutral site win that wasn't as close as the score indicated against a future No. 1 seed, and UK's latest domination of its archrival on the road.

This was finally when Kentucky's players and fans seemed to get over the Duke loss that started the season on such a bad note. This was also Ashton Hagans' best stretch of the season. He had eight steals against North Carolina and played like the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, an honor he won for the season.

One could go with the stretch that included the blowout win over Tennessee and 27-point win against Auburn without Reid Travis, but there were some lackluster moments sprinkled in around that time, such as a home loss to LSU and an unimpressive second half against Missouri when Travis went out.

Worst Stretch

The worst stretch of the season for the Wildcats was the team's first nine games of the regular season. That goes back far enough to include that loss to Duke and extends through the loss to Seton Hall in New York. In that game against the Pirates the Cats actually started to show signs of life but that was arguably UK's worst loss of the season (even though the Pirates made the NCAA Tournament).

Kentucky was also lackluster against Southern Illinois, VMI, Winthrop, Tennessee State and UNC Greensboro during that stretch, although none of those games were exactly close calls.

Best Accomplishment

Reaching the Elite Eight. That might not seem like a huge deal for Kentucky fans, who have been spoiled by Kentucky's tournament success throughout history and in the John Calipari era. But the Wildcats, a two-seed in a blue blooded region, went as far as most two seeds are expected to make it. That doesn't mean the loss to Auburn was any less disappointing especially given the absence of Chuma Okeke after his injury in the Tigers win against North Carolina. But coming one overtime period from the Final Four was the best thing these Wildcats did.

Biggest Failure

Kentucky failed to win the SEC regular season or tournament championships and that makes it a rarity in the Calipari era. Since the 2009-10 season Kentucky has won five regular season SEC championships and seven SEC tournament titles. There's no hardware and no banner to show for this season, even though the Wildcats were considered a national title contender in November and in March. The overall strength of the SEC has something to do with that. Before the season Auburn, Tennessee and Kentucky were the overwhelming favorites in the league. As it turned out, a talented LSU team won the SEC regular season crown and Auburn took the postseason trophy.

Best Player

The Wildcats had several quality players but only one All-American. Sophomore forward PJ Washington was recognized as a third-teamer by just about every outlet or organization that comes up with those lists at the end of the season. For the season Washington averaged 15.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. But it was really Washington's stretch of play from mid-January through the end of the season that made his season so special. For much of that time one could have argued that he was playing like one of the two or three best players in college basketball.

Mr. Consistency

Reid Travis doesn't fit the image of the prototypical Kentucky basketball player in the Calipari era. The graduate transfer had a degree from Stanford and was thus much older than most of the players who have contributed for the Wildcats in recent years. He had no track record in Lexington but had been one of the Pac-12's best players over the past few seasons. What's more, many Kentucky players under Calipari have come with strong prospect credentials and overwhelming athletic or skill potential that wouldn't be tapped into in a serious way until long after they left Lexington. Travis was regarded, upon arrival, as more of a college standout than an NBA prospect.

His impact was obvious throughout his lone season at UK but never more than when he was absent for a stretch at the end of the season. Kentucky had been playing like one of the best teams in college basketball but when Travis went out with an injury against Missouri the Wildcats started to look quite ordinary. He made Kentucky better on the defensive end, which might have been surprising to many, because of how he switched on ball screens. And Travis was consistent in terms of scoring in the post and rebounding.

Best Freshman

Tyler Herro was Kentucky's lowest-rated basketball signee from the Class of 2018 but as it turned out he had one of the two best seasons out of any of his classmates. A case can be made for Keldon Johnson, as the two players had similar averages (Johnson 13.5 PPG, 5.9 RPG and Herro 14.0 PPG and 4.5 RPG) and both shot 46-percent from the floor. Statistically it's almost impossible to distinguish Herro from Johnson so it's only right that these two share recognition as Kentucky's two best freshmen - on an equal footing.

Most Improved

Kentucky's best player, PJ Washington, was also its most improved player. There were plenty of strong moments for Washington during the 2017-18 season, such as the NCAA Tournament even in spite of his free throw woes against Kansas State. But Washington was inconsistent for most of his freshman campaign, struggling with when to pick his spots, his "skill consistency" (something scouts wanted to see more of, Calipari often said) and his shooting outside the paint.

Washington returned and many are now saying he has created a roadmap for potential second-year Kentucky players. He's likely to be drafted in the first 20 picks of the next NBA Draft, possibly much higher, and developed a well-rounded game. Washington was a three-level scorer, one of the most improved long-range shooters in college basketball, a tenacious rebounder, a more explosive player and a consistent defender. He went from an inconsistent freshman without a season-long niche to a bona fide star and one of nearly 40 All-Americans the nation's most storied program now claims.

Best Individual Performance

PJ Washington scored 28 points and had 13 rebounds in Kentucky's biggest game of the season, that Elite Eight game against Auburn. Unfortunately for the Wildcats not enough of Washington's teammates played well enough to advance to the program's first Final Four since the 2014-15 season. That Washington posted those numbers is only part of the story. Washington was given the day off on the Saturday before that game because of lingering pain from the foot injury that had made him questionable for the Houston game in the Sweet 16 round. Many of those points and boards also came in clutch moments when Kentucky didn't have any other answers against the red hot Tigers.