Big Blue Preview: Kentucky vs. Troy (NCAA Tournament First Round)
As the Kentucky men’s basketball team prepares for its first-round game against Troy on Friday in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, one of the topics of discussion is the Cats’ wealth of experience. Despite playing in a large number of college games, the UK roster does not have a ton of experience in the Big Dance.
Lamont Butler has, by far, the most postseason experience on the UK roster. Butler has played in 11 NCAA Tournament games, including the 2023 title game. Ansley Almonor has played in three tournament games and Koby Brea has participated in two. Andrew Carr and Amari Williams have each played in one NCAA Tournament game.
UK head coach Mark Pope believes that experience overall can be just as important as NCAA Tournament experience, and he likes how many collegiate games his roster has participated in.
“I think the beautiful thing about experience is — the one thing about experience is this game can throw so many different things at you. And so the more experience you have, the more you experience, the more memories you have to call back on and be, like, okay, I’ve been here before,” Pope said. “I’ve seen the scheme before. I’ve executed in this situation before. I’ve felt these emotions before. And so the more familiar experiences can be, that’s certainly a bonus. I think our guys have a lot of that.”
Pope says that having experience is important, but perhaps not as important as some people may think.
“I don’t know if there’s that much of a difference. We probably make more of it than it is,” Pope said. “I say that sincerely. We’ll approach this game against Troy like we’ve approached every single game all season long with the same words, same intensity, same vocabulary, same urgency. We kind of max out the prep and intensity of every game, and so we’ll do it the same here.”
Butler clearly has the most experience in the tournament on the UK roster and he was asked what advice he would give to his teammates.
“Just have fun with it. It’s a blessing just to be on this stage, to have this opportunity. So really just have fun and play free,” Butler said. “Everybody has dreamed of this moment, and to seize this moment, we’ve got to be ourselves, do what we’ve been doing this whole year to get here, and do it at a high rate. We need everybody to be special in their roles and I think it’s going to be a successful year for us.”
The Cats hope that their experience will pay off on Friday in the first-round matchup against Troy in Milwaukee.
Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament
Kentucky is set to makes its 62nd NCAA Tournament appearance, the most by any Division I program. In addition to the most appearances, Kentucky also holds the record for the most NCAA Tournament games played (185) and ranks second all-time in NCAA Tournament wins (130) behind North Carolina. The Cats have won eight National Championships and reached 17 Final Fours.
Kentucky is 49-12 in NCAA Tournament openers and has won 26 of its last 29 opening-round games. This marks the fifth time that UK has earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the second consecutive year the Cats have done so. Kentucky is 6-4 in the tournament as a No. 3 seed all-time including 2-1 in the first round. The third-seeded Cats reached the Elite Eight of the 1999 NCAA Tournament, the program’s deepest run as a No. 3 seed.
Kentucky vs. the 2025 NCAA Field
UK has played a whopping 23 games against 18 teams in this year’s NCAA Tournament field, going 13-10 in such contests. The Cats’ 23 games against NCAA Tournament teams ranks as the fourth most in the country behind only Alabama (25), Auburn (24), and Tennessee (24). The 18 unique NCAA Tournament opponents faced ranks tied for the third most in the nation behind Alabama (20) and Auburn (19). Both numbers are program records.
The Wildcats own wins over two different No. 1 seeds (Duke and Florida) for the first time in program history and have already faced three of the four No. 1 seeds in this year’s tournament. The Cats have played a total of eight games against teams on the No. 1 and No. 2 seed lines, posting a record of 4-4.
NCAA Tournament Experience
Kentucky’s scholarship roster consists of players entirely new to UK. The group does boast some NCAA Tournament experience, however. What follows is a breakdown of the scholarship players on the roster who have played in the NCAA Tournament. Entering this year’s tournament, Kentucky’s scholarship players have combined for 12 NCAA Tournament appearances and an NCAA Tournament record of 14-11.
Ansley Almonor: Reached NCAA Tournament with Farleigh Dickinson in 2023. Team won First Four game before upsetting No. 1 seed Purdue in the first round. Career NCAA Tournament record: 2-1. Averaged 10.3 points, 6 rebounds and shot 7-16 (.438) from deep.
Koby Brea: One NCAA Tournament appearance with Dayton, reaching the second round in 2024. Career NCAA Tournament record: 1-1. Averaged 14.5 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists while shooting 9-17 (.529) from 3-point range
Lamont Butler: Four prior NCAA Tournament appearances at San Diego State; reached National Championship game in 2023 and Sweet 16 in 2024; Career NCAA Tournament record of 7-4. Averaged 8.8 points, 3.4 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals. Hit buzzer-beater in the 2023 Final Four vs. Florida Atlantic to send SDSU to National Championship. Scored 13 points, had four rebounds and two assists in 2023 National Championship vs. UConn.
Andrew Carr: Reached NCAA Tournament with Delaware in 2022. Career NCAA Tournament record: 0-1. Scored 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting vs. No. 2 seed Villanova.
*Kerr Kriisa: Two NCAA Tournament appearances with Arizona in 2022 and 2023. Reached Sweet 16 with Arizona as a No. 1 seed in 2022. Career NCAA Tournament record: 2-2. Averaged three points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists
*Jaxson Robinson: Two NCAA Tournament appearances, one at Arkansas and one at BYU. Reached Elite Eight with Arkansas in 2022 (did not play). Career NCAA Tournament record of 3-2. Scored 25 points and hit five 3s in BYU’s First Round NCAA Tournament game vs. Duquesne.
Amari Williams: One NCAA Tournament appearance with Drexel in 2021. Career NCAA Tournament record: 0-1. Had three assists and two rebounds in just four minutes against No. 1 seed Illinois as a true freshman.
*Out for the season due to injury
