Kentucky Will Host North Carolina for ACC/SEC Challenge

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky men’s basketball program will host North Carolina on Dec. 2 inside of Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge the leagues announced on Thursday. A TV designation and tip time will be announced at a later date.

This marks the third installment of the event between the two conferences. In the inaugural matchup, Kentucky downed No. 8 Miami in Rupp Arena in 2023-24 by a 95-73 margin. Clemson edged the Cats last season 70-66 in Clemson, South Carolina. The Southeastern Conference dominated the second year of the challenge with the Atlantic Coast Conference, winning 14-2. The SEC’s margin of victory in the 14 wins was 16.2 points, while its margin in the two losses was just 3.5 points last season.

North Carolina leads the all-time series with the Wildcats, 25-18, although UK has won three of the last four meetings and five of the last seven overall. Kentucky is 8-6 against the Tar Heels when the game is played in Lexington. This marks the first edition of the series since the 2023-24 season where the Cats earned an 87-83 win in the CBS Sports Classic. UK has won three straight inside of Rupp Arena, with those wins coming during the 2014-15 season, the 2011-12 season and the 2009-10 season.

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope and the Wildcats are coming off the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 2019 and return Collin Chandler, Brandon Garrison, Trent Noah and Otega Oweh who all contributed to a 24-12 season which featured wins over an NCAA-record-tying eight Associated Press Top 15 foes. Chandler shot 12 for 23 (52.2%) from distance over his final six games – all against NCAA Tournament teams. Garrison produced seven double-figure scoring efforts and shot 50.9% from the field in 17.3 minutes per game as a sophomore, while Noah’s breakthrough performance came in an 11-point effort in an upset of No. 5 Tennessee at home. Oweh led the team in scoring at 16.2 points per game and earned All-SEC Second Team accolades during a breakout junior season. The senior guard churned out 33 double-digit scoring efforts, including 13 performances of 20 or more points, and also led the squad in total steals (57) and steals per game (1.6).

Adding to UK’s firepower in 2025-26 is one of the highest-ranked transfer classes in the country. The Cats will add 2025 National Champion Denzel Aberdeen from Florida, a two-time NCAA Sweet 16 participant in Alabama’s Mouhamed Dioubate, an All-Atlantic Coast Conference performer in Pitt’s Jaland Lowe, Reece Potter from Miami of Ohio who is a Lexington native and a part of the RedHawks who won 25 games in 2024-25, National Defensive Player of the Year late-season finalist Jayden Quaintance from Arizona State and Kam Williams from Tulane who earned American Athletic Conference All-Freshman Team honors.

Aberdeen logged 7.7 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game while shooting 41.8% from the field, 35.0% from distance and 70.8% from the free-throw line in 2024-25. In his five starts last season, he averaged 14.4 points and shot 41.4% from 3-point range (12 for 29). Dioubate averaged 7.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game for the Crimson Tide in 2024-25. He scored in double-figures in 13 outings and had five double-doubles. Lowe started all 31 games for Pitt and averaged a team-high 16.8 points per game to couple with 5.5 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. Potter averaged 6.3 points and 3.4 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per contest in two seasons at Miami. He shot 45.4 percent from the field and an impressive 39.8 percent from 3-point range. Quaintance started all 24 games in which he played with the Sun Devils, averaging 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocks and 1.5 assists while shooting 52.5 percent from the field. Williams averaged 9.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.4 blocks per game, while shooting 41.2% from distance in his lone season with the Green Wave.

The Cats also have four first-year player signees in Braydon Hawthorne, Andrija Jelavić, Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno. Johnson and Moreno were both members of Team USA at the Nike Hoop Summit in April. Johnson averaged 20.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game for Real Wild Energy in the Overtime Elite League. Moreno was named Mr. Kentucky Basketball after leading Great Crossing High School to its first state title in program history where he tallied 24 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks in the championship victory. He was also a McDonald’s All-American selection. Jelavić is one of the top European prospects who has averaged 11.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game for Mega Superbet in the Adriatic League. Hawthorne is a consensus four-star prospect and one of the fastest risers in the class of 2025. He averaged 23.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game at Huntington Prep en route to earning the No. 1 overall player ranking from the state of West Virginia.

Those interested in new season tickets are encouraged to enter the season-ticket lottery. Due to the extremely high renewal rate of men’s basketball season tickets, only a limited number of upper-level tickets are available each year through the lottery.

A limited number of new lower-level season tickets are available with a capital pledge commitment, as are memberships in Rupp Arena’s newest hospitality space, the Champions Club. For more information on premium options, please contact the K Fund Office at (859) 257-6300.

For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and on the web at UKathletics.com.