Kentucky Announces 2023-24 Men’s Basketball Nonconference Slate

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LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky men’s basketball team has set its 2023-24 nonconference schedule, head coach John Calipari announced Thursday. The 13-game nonconference schedule includes nine home contests at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center, an away tilt at in-state foe Louisville and three neutral-site matchups.

The Southeastern Conference slate, along with television networks and game times will be announced at a later date.

After a pair of to-be-determined exhibition contests, the Cats open the home schedule against New Mexico State on Nov. 6, travel to Chicago for a State Farm Champions Classic matchup against Kansas on Nov. 14 and wrap up the month with an ACC/SEC Challenge contest against Miami on Nov. 28. Kentucky squares off with North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic on Dec. 16 in Atlanta, travels to Louisville on Dec. 21 and hosts Gonzaga on Feb. 10.

Along with those matchups, the Cats face Texas A&M University-Commerce (Nov. 10), Stonehill (Nov. 17) and Saint Joseph’s (Nov. 20) in the three-game Wildcat Challenge presented by Kentucky Tourism. UK also has home contests against Marshall (Nov. 24), UNC-Wilmington (Dec. 2) and Illinois State (Dec. 29) along with a matchup against Penn at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Dec. 9.

In SEC play, the Cats will take on permanent home-and-away opponents Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt along with playing Arkansas and Mississippi State twice in the regular season. Along with those five teams, Kentucky will host Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss and Missouri and travel to Auburn, LSU, South Carolina and Texas A&M.

In all, the Wildcats will face 10 teams who reached the 2022-23 NCAA Tournament a total of 13 times this season. Kentucky will take on five Sweet Sixteen teams from a year ago.

One Response

  1. Kansas, North Carolina, Miami, and Gonzaga…a respectable non conference schedule. Normally, Louisville would be included in that list and Payne will get them back there in time, but for now, this will be a decent litmus test to indicate what kind of season we could have. Even if we were to lose all 4 of these games, it will give Calipari a solid picture of what needs to be done to be ready for the Big Dance. A 2-2 split is more likely.

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