Men's Basketball

July 30, 2001

Complete Schedule in PDF Format



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Men’s Basketball Schedule

Home games against North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and the much-anticipated Louisville matchup highlight the University of Kentucky 2001-02 men’s basketball schedule released today by Athletics Director Larry Ivy.

The 28-game regular-season schedule includes 14 games against 2001 NCAA Tournament teams, a showdown with defending national champion Duke in the Jimmy V Classic and an “unprecedented” seven games broadcast nationally by CBS Sports.

“I think this a very solid, competitive schedule from November to March, typical of what we’ve had in the past,” Ivy said. “However, as you look at our home schedule, it may be one of our better slates we’ve had in some time, thanks to the NABC Classic, North Carolina, Louisville and last year’s top three teams from the SEC Western Division all scheduled to play in Rupp Arena.”

Following exhibition games against Nike Elite and Athletes in Action in early November, the Wildcats tip off their 99th season of college basketball playing host to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Classic at Rupp Arena, Nov. 15-16. Kentucky will battle Western Kentucky, which returns honorable-mention All-American Chris Marcus, while Marshall faces George Washington. The consolation and championship games follow the second night.

UK will face Kyle Macy’s Morehead State squad on Nov. 24 before facing Kent State in Cincinnati on Nov. 28. Kent State upset Indiana in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament. After a home game against VMI, North Carolina makes its first appearance in Rupp Arena and its first return to Lexington since 1968 on Dec. 8. A week later, UK will battle Division II Kentucky State for the first time in history.

“We were expecting to renew our contract with Georgia Tech, but when that didn’t happen, we were left to find a replacement at a late date,” Ivy said. “When we found out Kentucky State would play us, Coach Smith and I decided that it would be a great opportunity for us to help another in-state institution and two former Wildcats in the process, Coach Winston Bennett and Athletics Director Derrick Ramsey.”

Kentucky’s holiday break is filled with marquee opponents. UK will renew its rivalry with preseason favorite Duke in the Jimmy V. Classic at the New Jersey Meadowlands on Dec. 18. The doubleheader also features Temple and Alabama in the opener. The Cats and Blue Devils last met in Dec. 1998 at the Jimmy V. Classic with Duke winning, 71-60.

On Dec. 22, the Cats battle Indiana in front of nearly 40,000 fans in the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. On Dec. 29, former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino, who guided the Cats to the 1996 NCAA Championship, returns to Rupp Arena as coach of archrival Louisville.

The Wildcats battle their second straight Conference USA team when former UK assistant coach Shawn Finney brings Tulane to Louisville’s Freedom Hall on Jan. 2. It’s the first game of a two-year, home-and-home contract with the Green Wave. Four games into the Southeastern Conference slate, Kentucky faces its final non-conference opponent, Notre Dame, in South Bend on Jan. 19.

“This will be another challenging schedule that will test us early,” Coach Tubby Smith said. “For the last two seasons, we’ve been ranked at the top of the power polls for strength of schedule. I’m sure when it’s all said and done, we might have the nation’s toughest schedule again.”

UK opens its SEC slate on the road for the first time in six years, visiting Mississippi State. The top three Western Division teams from last season – Ole Miss, Arkansas and Alabama – all visit Rupp Arena this year. Kentucky completes its regular-season schedule at home on March 2 against Florida on Senior Day, the third straight year the Cats and Gators have closed out the season.

Again this season, every regular-season game will be televised either live or delayed. Thirteen games will be broadcast by a national network, including seven on CBS and six on ESPN.

“I’ve produced college basketball games for CBS the past 17 years, and I don’t recall ever broadcasting more than five games of any one particular school during a regular season,” said Bob Dekas, the lead college basketball producer for the network. “It’s a tribute to the Kentucky program, its schedule that it chooses to play and the fact that the Southeastern Conference is one of the strongest leagues in the nation.”

The release of the schedule was delayed two weeks. Initially, ESPN had wanted to schedule two 9 p.m. Super Tuesday games at Rupp Arena while CBS had elected to tip the Wildcats’ Senior Day game with Florida at noon on Sunday, March 3. But Ivy intervened and ESPN flipped the Ole Miss game to a 7 p.m. start while CBS moved the Florida game to Saturday, away from Sunday church services.

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