Former UK coach John Calipari spent time recruiting Jasper Johnson to play at Kentucky but now Calipari will be back in Rupp Arena coaching Arkansas.
If you had any doubts about how big John Calipari’s return to Kentucky would be on Feb. 1, it is obvious now.
The Southeastern Conference released starting times/TV assignments for Kentucky’s games this season and the UK-Arkansas game Feb. 1 in Rupp Arena will tip off at 9 p.m. on ESPN. That will be Calipari’s return to Rupp after he spent the previous 15 years coaching the Wildcats.
The 9 p.m. start does not guarantee that ESPN GameDay will be in Lexington that day but it certainly would indicate that’s the plan because unless both teams are terrible, it’s hard to imagine a more intriguing game that day than Arkansas-Kentucky.
The SEC release did have some good news for UK fans — very few 9 p.m. week night starts.
Kentucky will play Duke at 9 p.m. on Nov. 12 and ESPN and face Clemson at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN Dec. 3 but the only other scheduled 9 p.m. tip for the Cats will be Feb. 26 at Oklahoma on the SEC Network. There could be one more late start on March 4 for UK’s Senior Day game against LSU as that is slated for either 7 or 9 p.m. on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.
Coach Mark Pope’s SEC debut will be Jan. 4 against Florida in Rupp Arena. That game has a surprising 11 a.m. start on ESPN but obviously the SEC wants Kentucky to be the lead game for its conference season.
Kentucky will have a noon start against Alabama on Jan. 18. Alabama is a preseason top five team and remember the beatdown the Cats put on Alabama in Rupp Arena last year. Other early afternoon games will be Jan. 25 at Vanderbilt at 2:30 p.m. and Missouri at noon on March 8. Kentucky’s home game with Auburn on March 1 will start at either 1 or 4 p.m. on ABC or ESPN.
The bad news for UK fans is that five games will be streamed on SEC Network+ just like Pro Day was earlier this week. Exhibition matchups with Kentucky Wesleyan (Oct. 23) and Minnesota St. Mankato (Oct. 29) are two of the games that will be live streamed. Other games scheduled only for live stream are Bucknell (Nov. 9), Lipscomb (Nov. 19) and Jackson State (No. 22). That creates issues for a lot of older fans but at least after Nov. 22 there will be no more games on live stream only.
The only game without at least a tentative starting time and TV assignment is Gonzaga on Dec. 7 in Seattle.
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Not one ABA basketball in that picture.
And the DOC played at UMass