UK Announces Five Non-Conference Matchups

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The pieces continue to come together for the Kentucky men’s basketball program’s upcoming 2025-26 schedule. On Friday, head coach Mark Pope announced five nonconference matchups to the slate including a home date with Indiana on Dec. 13. All five games will be within the friendly confines of Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center.

Coming to Lexington this season are Loyola University Maryland on Nov. 21, Kentucky Athletics Hall of Famer John Pelphrey and his Tennessee Tech squad on Nov. 26, North Carolina Central will visit on Dec. 9, the Hoosiers visit Dec. 13 and UK will welcome instate foe Bellarmine on Dec. 23.

UK is expected to add additional nonconference foes, along with the Southeastern Conference slate, to complete the 2025-26 schedule. Television networks and game times will be announced at a later date.

This marks the second time in program history that Kentucky will face the Ramblers. UK also met Loyola University Maryland during the 2011-12 season in Lexington, an 87-63 Wildcats’ win. Kentucky is 5-0 all-time against Tennessee Tech with the last meeting coming in the 2007-08 season. All five games have been played in Lexington. UK leads the series 32-25 against Indiana. The teams last met in the NCAA Tournament in 2016. The last time the border foes met in the regular season was the 2011-12 season and it will be the first time Indiana has visited Lexington since the 2010-11 season. This marks the second time in the last three seasons that Kentucky will take on Bellarmine. UK won 60-41 in a matchup in 2022-23 inside of Rupp Arena.

The Cats will take on North Carolina Central for the first time in program history.

Pope and the Wildcats are coming off the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 2019 and return Collin Chandler, Brandon Garrison and Trent Noah 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. 

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 this 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 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.