No. 10 Kentucky Renews Rivalry with Notre Dame on Saturday
Many Kentucky basketball fans, especially those under the age of 30, may not realize that the Kentucky-Notre Dame rivalry was once a very big deal. And there is quite a bit of history between the programs.
Kentucky has played Notre Dame more often than any non-conference opponent (Georgia Tech was once a member of the SEC, so they are not included). The Cats and the Fighting Irish have faced off 63 times, with Kentucky winning 43 times and Notre Dame 20.
The teams met every season from 1961 through 1982, with UK winning 19 of the 23 meetings. The teams would meet each season from 1988 through 1996, with UK winning seven of the nine games. And the Cats and the Irish met from 2001-04, with UK winning all four of the games.
Kentucky has won 12 of the last 15 meetings between the schools, but Notre Dame has won three of the last five. That includes last season, when Notre Dame built a 24-point first half lead only to see the Cats come back and have a shot to win the game with less than 10 seconds left. Alas, Olivier Sarr’s jumper missed and the Irish hung on for their first-ever win in Lexington.
One of the ironic things about the series is that, in the 63 meetings, 39 of them have been on neutral courts. Kentucky has been to Notre Dame just 15 times and has not visited the Notre Dame campus since 2012.
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| Kentucky at Notre Dame | ||
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Sat., Dec. 11 – 5:15 p.m. ET |
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TV: ESPN |
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| UK | Stats | UND |
| 7-1 | Record | 3-4 |
| 82.6 | PPG | 69.0 |
| 60.9 | Opp PPG | 66.7 |
| .484 | FG% | .436 |
| .386 | Opp FG% | .443 |
| 45.9 | RPG | 35.1 |
| .327 | 3PT FG% | .320 |
| .296 | Opp 3PT FG% | .426 |
| 17.3 | APG | 12.3 |
| 6.9 | SPG | 5.0 |
| 6.0 | BPG | 2.9 |
Kentucky is 6-9 at Notre Dame all-time. However, since 1982, the Cats have won five of seven at Notre Dame.
For the 2021-22 Cats, Saturday’s game will be the first true road game of the season. As UK prepares to start conference play in about three weeks, playing in a hostile environment will be good for them, Calipari said.
“It will be a typical environment that we get,” Calipari said. “It’s the game they mark on their calendar, it’s the game they’re excited to play.”
UK guard Davion Mintz knows that Notre Dame has an outstanding home venue. He also knows that the Irish handled the Cats last season.
“Notre Dame has a great home arena and they’re going to come at us,” Mintz said. “For us to be able to go to Notre Dame, with the history that they have and also, the way they kind of manhandled us last year, will be good for us for sure.”
Notre Dame is 3-4 this season. The Irish opened with two games at home but have played the last five, over the course of nearly four weeks, either on the road or at neutral sites.
Calipari knows that the Irish could easily have a better record this season.
“The tape that I’ve watched, Notre Dame, the games they lost, they just missed shots that they normally make,” Calipari said. “They just don’t miss those and especially at home.”
Having not seen his team in a true road environment so far this season, Calipari is not sure how his team will react.
“I don’t know yet, we’ll see,” Calipair said. “All of these experiences are learning experiences.”
The 2021-22 Cats will learn about themselves while renewing one of the most storied rivalries in UK basketball history on Saturday at Notre Dame.
First True Road Test
Saturday’s matchup at Notre Dame will mark Kentucky’s first true road game of the season. The Wildcats opened the 2021-22 year at Madison Square Garden in a neutral-site environment vs. Duke and then enjoyed a seven-game winning streak with seven consecutive games at home.
But now the Wildcats will face their first test in hostile territory when they visit the Fighting Irish. It will mark UK’s first game at Notre Dame since losing 64-50 on Nov. 29, 2012.
The teams have alternated wins over the last six matchups with the Fighting Irish winning last year’s game in Rupp Arena. In that game, Notre Dame stormed out to a 24-point first-half lead. The Wildcats came all the way back and nearly stole the game on a last-second jumper, but lost 64-63.
The two schools used to meet frequently, playing every year from the 1957-58 season to 1982-83, and then again nine more times from 1987-88 to 1996-97. UK owns the all-time series advantage 43-20, but the Wildcats are only 6-9 at Notre Dame.
Notre Dame is led by Dane Goodwin, who is averaging 14.3 points per game. Wesley Blake is averaging 12.9 points and Paul Atkinson Jr. is adding 11.1 points a game. Nate Laszewski, who burned UK for 21 points and nine boards last season, is still on the roster, as is Prentiss Hub, who scored 18 in Rupp Arena. Goodwin scored nine in last season’s matchup.
The game vs. Notre Dame marks the beginning of a tough stretch for the Wildcats. After a seven-game homestand, UK plays at Notre Dame on Saturday, in the CBS Sports Classic against Ohio State in Las Vegas on Dec. 18, and then hosts archrival Louisville on Dec. 22. The Southeastern Conference opener is Dec. 29 vs. Missouri.
Kentucky Slips Past Southern
Oscar Tshiebwe wasn’t fazed by being a foul away from having to leave the game, because he was playing smarter.
“I wanted my head to stay in the game,” said Tshiebwe, who finished with four fouls and sat for several minutes in the first half. “Coming back, I was kind of with the mentality of win the game and be careful. Coach told me that if you see you cannot get it, don’t reach, just go back.”
Tshiebwe scored 18 of his 23 points after halftime despite that foul trouble, TyTy Washington Jr. added 14 points and both Wildcats keyed small runs to help No. 10/12 Kentucky top Southern 76-64 on Tuesday night for its seventh consecutive victory.
Jayden Saddler had 18 points, Brion Whitley added 14 points and Tyrone Lyons 12 for Southern, which dropped its second consecutive game.
Playing for the first time in eight days, the Wildcats (7-1) went back and forth with the determined Jaguars (3-6) for much of the first half before taking the lead for good at 29-26 on Kellan Grady’s 3-pointer. It sparked an 8-0 run to put Kentucky up 38-34 at the break.
Tshiebwe sat for the final nine minutes of the first half with two fouls, but came back on the floor in the second half to lend six points and four rebounds to Kentucky’s 13-5 run for a 51-39 cushion.
The Wildcats needed it, as Southern closed to 57-51 before Tshiebwe and Washington combined for nine points to make it 66-53. Kentucky stayed ahead just enough the rest of the way to close out the team’s closest victory this season after a run of blowouts.
Tshiebwe made his final seven shots to finish 9 of 11 from the field and grabbed 11 rebounds for his nation-leading seventh double-double. Grady and Davion Mintz each added nine points as the Wildcats shot 49% and won the contest on the boards 41-25 and the paint 23-11.
There were also some blemishes for Kentucky, which committed 15 turnovers that led to 21 Southern points. The Wildcats were also outscored 13-8 on the break, speaking volumes to the Jaguars’ intensity.
“Thank goodness we won, because they played harder than us,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. ”(Southern coach) Sean (Woods) did a better job of coaching this team. … They never stop playing no matter what the score was, just like today.”
The game kicked off the five-game Unity Series matching Kentucky against Southwestern Athletic Conference schools to raise awareness and funds for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
It also marked another homecoming for Woods, who is Kentucky’s career leader in assists per game and No. 5 in steals per game and a key member of the 1992 “Unforgettables” squad that fell to Duke 104-103 in overtime in the epic 1992 NCAA tournament game decided by Christian Laettner’s last-second jumper.
Woods brought his third program back to Rupp Arena, but Southern came up just short.
“We had to sustain runs and I thought we did a good job there until about seven minutes to go,” he said. “They made that one run and we couldn’t make a shot for about four or five possessions.”
Kentucky’s seven-game winning streak is its best since winning eight in a row in the 2019-20 season
• Washington has scored in double figures in each of UK’s seven wins
• Three Wildcats (Tshiebwe with four, Jacob Toppin with four and Daimion Collins with three) had at least three blocked shots, leading to 12 total slots, Kentucky’s best mark since blocking 12 vs. Kansas on Dec. 1, 2020
• Davion Mintz returned to the lineup after missing the previous three games with an illness
