Tickets to the 2015 CBS Sports Classic, a college basketball doubleheader featuring perennial powers Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio State and UCLA, will go on sale Friday, Oct. 16, at 10 a.m.
The second annual event will take place on Saturday, Dec. 19, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, starting at 1 p.m. with North Carolina taking on UCLA followed by Ohio State facing Kentucky at 3:30 p.m. CBS Sports will broadcast the games.
Tickets to the CBS Sports Classic guarantee admission to both contests and can be purchased through Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com, www.barclayscenter.com, by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or by visiting the American Express Box Office at Barclays Center.
Together, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio State and UCLA have won 25 NCAA Championships and made 172 NCAA Tournament appearances. Since 2006, each team has appeared in at least two Final Fours, while each of the four has played in at least one national championship game. They are among college basketball’s all-time winningest programs, combining for more than 7,700 victories.
The 2015 CBS Sports Classic marks the second of a three-year rotation featuring four of the nation’s top programs in an early-season showcase. The 2016 doubleheader will be held in Las Vegas.
Poythress, Ulis selected for basketball Watch Lists
With the 2015-16 college basketball season a few weeks away, several early season honors have begun to rolled in for veterans Alex Poythress and Tyler Ulis, who were named to positional award watch lists by the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
Poythress earned recognition to the Julius Erving award for the country’s best-performing small forward, while Ulis was one of 20 players selected to the Bob Cousy list for the nation’s top point guard.
Poythress will return to the floor following a season-ending ACL injury that forced him to miss the final 29 games of the season a year ago. A powerful presence in the post, Poythress is just 90 rebounds shy of becoming the 52nd player in program history to snatch 500 or more career boards.
He’s also on pace to become the 61st player in school history to top 1,000 career points. He will enter his senior season with 649 career points.
Ulis earned All-Southeastern Conference Freshman Team recognition a season ago and appeared in 37 games during UK’s historic 2014-15 season. The Lima, Ohio native led the Wildcats in assists in 20 contests, while posting five or more dimes in 12 games.
He did not commit a turnover in any of UK’s final four games of the season during the NCAA Tournament run. He concluded his freshman campaign ranking third in the country and first among league competition for his 3.6 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Both lists will be narrowed down to 10 in mid-February and then five finalists will be selected in March. The winners of the awards will be presented at the second annual ESPN College Basketball Awards Show in Los Angeles on April 8.
UK Sports Network to air pre-Madness special
The UK Sports Network will once again air a pre-Big Blue Madness special from 5:30-7 p.m. on UK Sports Network select networks and UKathletics.com on Friday prior to the start of Big Blue Madness, which is slated for Oct. 16 at 7 p.m.
The show will feature exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes content from the Kentucky men’s and women’s basketball teams and more. Dave Baker and Christi Thomas will serve as the hosts for the night.
The entire show will air on UKathletics.com for the first time in program history.
For fans unable to make it to Rupp Arena for Big Blue Madness, the annual tipoff to the Kentucky men’s and women’s basketball seasons can be seen live on the SEC Network. It will mark the first time the yearly spectacle will air live and in its entirety on a national network.
The two-hour show will also stream live via the WatchESPN app on computers, tables and smartphones. ESPN’s Dave O’Brien will be on hand to make the call alongside analysts Sean Farnham and Kara Lawson.
Big Blue Madness will feature introductions of both the men’s and women’s basketball teams, practice drills, videos and more. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and the event will begin at 7 p.m.
Free tickets for Big Blue Madness, which were distributed last week in-person at Memorial Coliseum and online, sold out in just 25 minutes. This will be the 11th time Madness has been held at Rupp Arena.
UK basketball posters available
The official 2015 Kentucky men’s basketball team posters will be distributed to fans at Big Blue Madness on Friday night and then exclusively available in Kroger stores throughout the state of Kentucky and in parts of southern Indiana beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17.
There are three versions of this year’s poster featuring action shots of all 12 of UK’s scholarship players. Isaiah Briscoe, EJ Floreal, Dominique Hawkins and Isaac Humphries are on one poster; Skal Labissiere, Marcus Lee, Charles Matthews and Jamal Murray are on the second; and Mychal Mulder, Alex Poythress, Tyler Ulis and Derek Willis are on the third.
Fans attending Big Blue Madness at 7 p.m. on Friday will be the first to receive the poster. Each fan will have one version of the poster placed in his/her seat at Rupp Arena, as well as one of two versions of Kentucky’s 2015 women’s basketball poster.
The men’s basketball posters will then be available for free in more than 100 Kroger stores, including every Kentucky location. Limited quantities are available in each store, so fans are recommended to pick up their posters as early as possible after they become available on Saturday.
Women’s basketball posters will be available in Kroger stores at a later date. In the meantime, posters can be picked up at the Joe Craft Center Welcome Center.
From UK Athletics