The UK men’s basketball schedule is complete. And Kentucky vs. Calipari now has a date.

The UK men’s basketball schedule is complete. And Kentucky vs. Calipari now has a date.

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The University of Kentucky men’s basketball schedule for the 2024-25 season is official.

 

The SEC filled in blanks on Mark Pope’s first slate as the Wildcats’ head coach Tuesday, announcing dates for all 18 games that UK will play within the conference this season.

 

Of course, with that announcement came confirmation of when longtime Kentucky coach John Calipari will make his return to Rupp Arena — this time on the bench opposite from the one he patrolled for the past 15 years.

 

The date for that matchup — Kentucky vs. Arkansas in Lexington — will be Feb. 1, and it’s one that will surely draw loads of national attention. Both coaches have been asked questions about what they expect from the game during their offseason media rounds this summer, and at least one Las Vegas sportsbook had early betting odds on the clash before the date was even announced. (UK was set as the favorite.)

 

Calipari took the Razorbacks’ head coaching job in April after 15 seasons with the Wildcats, and Pope was hired as his replacement later that week.

 

Arkansas is far from the only marquee game on the Cats’ conference schedule.

 

The SEC could be the best league in all of college basketball this season, with ESPN’s latest “Way-Too-Early” rankings placing a whopping nine teams in the preseason Top 25. The Big 12 has six teams in those rankings, and no other conference has more than four.

 

Topping the SEC preseason lists is Alabama, which is coming off its first Final Four trip in program history and is ranked No. 2 nationally by both ESPN and CBS Sports heading into this season.

 

Kentucky must face the Crimson Tide twice this season: Jan. 18 in Lexington, and Feb. 22 in Tuscaloosa. Since Nate Oats became head coach of that program five years ago, Alabama has tied UK for the most wins in the SEC with 62 league victories.

 

The Cats will also face rival Tennessee twice this season. UK’s games against the defending league champions are set for Jan. 28 in Knoxville, and either Feb. 11 or 12 in Lexington. (Some of the SEC’s midweek games were not given specific dates, which will be announced at a later time.) The Volunteers are No. 13 nationally in the early ESPN rankings.

 

Kentucky, which is ranked 23rd on ESPN’s list, will face each of the other conference teams in those rankings just once during the regular season:

 

▪ No. 11 Auburn in Lexington on March 1.

 

▪ No. 12 Texas A&M in Lexington on Jan. 14 or 15.

 

▪ No. 14 Arkansas in Lexington on Feb. 1.

 

▪ At No. 20 Ole Miss on Feb. 4 or 5.

 

▪ No. 21 Florida in Lexington on Jan. 4.

 

▪ At No. 22 Texas on Feb. 15.

 

The SEC announced the home-and-away matchups for the 2024-25 league schedule in May, but the dates for those games were not released until Tuesday.

 

Mark Pope is headed into his first season as the UK men’s basketball coach, and his Wildcats will face a schedule stacked with Top 25-caliber talent.

Mark Pope is headed into his first season as the UK men’s basketball coach, and his Wildcats will face a schedule stacked with Top 25-caliber talent. Tasha Poullard tpoullard@herald-leader.com

More SEC scheduling notes

With two additions to the conference for the 2024-25 season — Oklahoma and Texas — the league has moved to a slightly different format while maintaining an 18-game schedule.

 

In the past, Kentucky played home-and-home series with five SEC foes, facing the other eight teams in the league just once. Now that the conference features 16 teams, the Cats will play just three home-and-home series, with just one game each against the SEC’s other 12 teams.

 

Along with Alabama and Tennessee, the other two-game opponent for UK will be Vanderbilt, which is projected to be the worst team in the SEC, according to the preseason Torvik ratings. The Wildcats’ games against Vandy are set for Jan. 25 in Nashville and either Feb. 18 or 19 in Lexington. (The Commodores are still at No. 75 nationally in those Torvik ratings, by the way, another indicator of the SEC’s perceived strength this season.)

 

Kentucky will begin its league slate on Saturday, Jan. 4 against Florida in Rupp Arena, with the regular-season finale scheduled for Saturday, March 8 at Missouri. The 2025 SEC Tournament will be played in Nashville on March 12-16.

 

UK will also have the equivalent of a “bye” on the 2024-25 schedule. With 19 game windows and just 18 games, the Cats won’t play at all between their home date with Alabama on Jan. 18 and a trip to Vandy on Jan. 25.

 

The SEC slate was set up the same way last season, but Kentucky did not get any time off, because its non-conference game against Gonzaga was scheduled for the middle of the league campaign.

 

With no reprieve from the grueling SEC schedule, that game against Gonzaga ended up being the third loss in a row for the Cats in Rupp Arena, the first time that had ever happened.

 

Another quirk of UK’s 2024-25 schedule: after playing Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic in Madison Square Garden on Dec. 21, the Cats will have just one game — Brown University in Rupp Arena on New Year’s Eve — before beginning league play Jan. 4.

 

More notes related to Kentucky’s SEC schedule:

 

▪ UK will have to travel for both of the games against the league’s new teams. The Cats will play at Texas on Feb. 15 and at Oklahoma on either Feb. 25 or 26. Texas’ campus is now the farthest from Lexington. It’s about 1,075 miles away, which is nearly a 16-hour drive (depending on your speed). The Cats, of course, will be flying.

 

▪ In addition to the aforementioned SEC teams in ESPN’s early Top 25, the site’s Bracketology projects Mississippi State as a 6 seed. UK will play the Bulldogs on Jan. 11, and this will be the third consecutive year that the Cats will travel to Starkville, the first time that’s happened since 1992.

 

▪ ESPN’s Bracketology lists Georgia as the first team out of the 2025 NCAA Tournament field. Kentucky will play the Bulldogs on Jan. 7 or 8 in Athens, and it will be a homecoming for UK associate coach Mark Fox, who was the head coach at Georgia from 2009 to 2018. Fox hired Pope in 2009 to be a member of his first Bulldogs’ coaching staff, marking Pope’s first job in college basketball.

 

▪ The Cats will have three sets of back-to-back road games within the league, though one of those will feature short trips to Tennessee and Vanderbilt. The toughest travel stretch of UK’s schedule: Feb. 15 at Texas, then a home game against Vandy and trips to Alabama (Feb. 22) and Oklahoma (Feb. 25 or 26). That’s a lot of time on the road in a span of a week and a half.

 

▪ Kentucky will play five Saturday home games and five Saturday road games, with Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina and Auburn as its weekend dates in Rupp.

 

▪ TV information and tip-off times will be announced at a later date.

 

UK basketball schedule is set

The release of the SEC dates Tuesday finalized the 2024-25 Kentucky basketball schedule after previous announcements were made related to the Wildcats’ nonconference and preseason slates.

 

The SEC gauntlet will come after a formidable schedule of games outside of the league.

 

Pope’s opener as UK’s head coach will be against Wright State on Nov. 4 in Rupp Arena, and the first major matchup of the season is set for just eight days later, when the Cats face Duke — and No. 1-ranked freshman Cooper Flagg — in the Champions Classic in Atlanta.

 

Other big games on the nonconference schedule will come at Clemson (Dec. 3), and versus Gonzaga (Dec. 7 in Seattle), Louisville (Dec. 14 in Rupp) and Ohio State (Dec. 21 in New York).

 

Duke and Gonzaga are both ranked in the top 10 nationally on ESPN’s preseason list, while Ohio State is No. 15 in the early CBS Sports rankings and Clemson is projected as an 8 seed in ESPN’s Bracketology, which has U of L as the second team out of the NCAA Tournament field.

 

UK announced last week that Big Blue Madness will be held Oct. 11 in Rupp Arena, followed by the annual Blue-White Game in Memorial Coliseum on Oct. 18 and exhibition games against Kentucky Wesleyan (Oct. 23) and defending NCAA Division II champion Minnesota State Mankato (Oct. 29) in Rupp.

 

Ticket information for the Wildcats’ preseason events has not yet been released.

 

2024-25 UK men’s basketball schedule

Kentucky’s full 2024-25 schedule has been set, though some of the team’s midweek SEC games will not get exact dates until closer to the season. Final times and TV assignments for all games will be announced later. Home games listed in all capital letters.

 

Oct. 11: BIG BLUE MADNESS

 

Oct. 18: 1-BLUE-WHITE GAME

 

Oct. 23: KENTUCKY WESLEYAN (exhibition)

 

Oct. 29: MINNESOTA STATE (exhibition)

 

Nov. 4: WRIGHT STATE

 

Nov. 9: BUCKNELL

 

Nov. 12: 2-Duke

 

Nov. 19: 3-LIPSCOMB

 

Nov. 22: 3-JACKSON STATE

 

Nov. 26: 3-WESTERN KENTUCKY

 

Nov. 29: GEORGIA STATE

 

Dec. 3: 4-At Clemson

 

Dec. 7: 5-Gonzaga

 

Dec. 11: COLGATE

 

Dec. 14: LOUISVILLE

 

Dec. 21: 6-Ohio State, 5:30 p.m.

 

Dec. 31: BROWN

 

Jan. 4: FLORIDA

 

Jan. 7 or 8: At Georgia

 

Jan. 11: At Mississippi State

 

Jan. 14 or 15: TEXAS A&M

 

Jan. 18: ALABAMA

 

Jan. 25: At Vanderbilt

 

Jan. 28: At Tennessee

 

Feb. 1: ARKANSAS

 

Feb. 4 or 5: At Ole Miss

 

Feb. 8: SOUTH CAROLINA

 

Feb. 11 or 12: TENNESSEE

 

Feb. 15: At Texas

 

Feb. 18 or 19: VANDERBILT

 

Feb. 22: At Alabama

 

Feb. 25 or 26: At Oklahoma

 

March 1: AUBURN

 

March 4 or 5: LSU

 

March 8: At Missouri

 

March 12-16: 7-SEC Tournament

 

1-Memorial Coliseum; 2-Champions Classic at State Farm Arena in Atlanta; 3-BBN Invitational in Rupp Arena; 4-SEC/ACC Challenge at Littlejohn Coliseum; 5-Battle in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena; 6-CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York; 7-SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.