Kentucky men's basketball announces pair of in-state exhibition games

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky men’s basketball team has announced a pair of in-state exhibition games for its upcoming 2023-24 season. UK will take on Georgetown College on Oct. 27 and Kentucky State on Nov. 2 inside Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center.

Game times and television designations will be announced at a later date.

Kentucky is 150-12 all-time in exhibition games and has won 29 straight, which includes UK’s 4-0 trip to Toronto this summer. UK is 47-1 in exhibition contests under John Calipari.

The game against Kentucky State will serve as the latest edition of the Unity Series. In each of the past two seasons, UK has played a regular-season contest against an historically black college and university. The game aims to raise awareness of the missions of the HBCUs and to raise funds to provide opportunities for students at their institutions.

During the first two years of its partnership with HBCUs, the Wildcats and their opponents have participated in educational field trips to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Museum in Cincinnati, were given resources to better brand themselves in the new name-image-likeness space, were provided career center resources, and participated in joint dinners at John Calipari’s radio show.

This season’s contest against Georgetown College will mark the fourth time the teams have met in an exhibition game. It will be the third time under Calipari that UK has welcomed the Tigers to Rupp Arena. In their last meeting in 2019, UK won, 80-53.

Kentucky has already released the conference portion of the schedule: the Cats will open SEC play at Florida on January 6, and the first home game is the following week against Missouri in Rupp Arena. UK will have its final home game against Vanderbilt on Wednesday, March 6, and the team will play the final game of the SEC schedule at Tennessee on March 9.

Marquee matchups outside of league play include home games against Miami and Gonzaga, neutral-site games against Kansas in Chicago and North Carolina in Atlanta, and a road trip to Louisville for the annual rivalry game against the Cards.

The full schedule is available here.

The season unofficially begins October 13th at 7 p.m., when Big Blue Madness returns to Rupp Arena.

Tickets to Big Blue Madness will be free, but they will only be available online. There will be no in-person ticket distribution this year, meaning there will not be a "campout" in order to get tickets in the days leading up to the event. This is due to the ongoing renovations of Memorial Coliseum, according to the University of Kentucky.

Tickets for the event will be distributed exclusively online at Ticketmaster.com and through the Ticketmaster app starting at 8 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 29.