By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Kentucky’s basketball schedule is nearly complete after the Southeastern Conference announced designated dates for the league slate on Wednesday.
Kentucky will open league play at Alabama on Jan. 3, the first of five road games in the first month of the calendar year. The Wildcats are also at LSU (Jan. 14 or 15), Tennessee (Jan. 17), Vanderbilt (Jan. 27 or 28) and close out the month on Jan. 31 at Arkansas.
The home games in January include Missouri (Jan. 6 or 7), Mississippi State (Jan. 10), Texas (Jan. 20 or 21), and Ole Miss (Jan. 24).
Kentucky will host Oklahoma (Feb. 3), Tennessee (Feb. 7), Georgia (Feb. 17 or 18), Vanderbilt (Feb. 28), with road encounters at Florida (Feb. 14), Auburn (Feb. 21), South Carolina (Feb. 24 or 25) in February.
The Wildcats are at Texas A&M on March 3 or 4 and will close out the regular season at Florida on March 7 at Rupp Arena,
For the first time in series history, Kentucky opens the regular season at Louisville on Nov. 11, followed by Michigan State in the Champions Classic a week later on Nov. 18 at Madison Square Garden. The team’s season-opener is against Loyola of Maryland on Nov. 21, the first of three straight home games. Kentucky then takes on Tennessee Tech on Nov. 26, and North Carolina in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Dec. 2.
The series against Gonzaga will be played at Bridestone Arena on Dec. 5, followed by North Carolina Central (Dec. 9) and Indiana on Dec. 13 at Rupp Arena.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope will face his former coach, Rick Pitino, when Kentucky meets St. John’s on Dec. 20 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Kentucky also will host Ballermine on Dec. 23.
“I love playing great teams all the time,” Pope said. “I love it. I think it’s really important. Anytime we can get great teams to come and disrupt, we’re going to take it, if it’s in the exhibition season or the preseason or the conference season, we’ll take it.”
The two exhibition games are against Purdue (Oct. 24) and Georgetown (Oct. 30). Both contests will be at Rupp Arena.
“I’m just excited for BBN — we get to walk in here and in late October and play the No. 1 team in the country,” Pope said. “I’m really excited about that. I’m excited about that for our fan base. I’m excited about it for for our guys, because when you play against great teams, it teaches you so much about yourself and and the chance to do that in an exhibition where the cost might not be so high, and get to do it really early in the season, where it’s not just the data you receive after the game and during the game, but it’s all of the energy and juice that it adds to your locker room every day, during the summer and during the fall. … I think those are all real bonuses.”
Pope and the Wildcats look to add at least three more home games to the non-conference slate before finalizing the 2025-26 schedule. Times and television designations will be announced at a later date.