Lots of ways to take a Big Blue break for Kentucky’s basketball-football doubleheader

Kentucky fans get an extra holiday squeezed in between Christmas and New Year’s on Friday as UK basketball and football play huge games just hours apart.

The 16th-ranked basketball Cats host Louisville at 1 p.m. on CBS, and Kentucky’s bowl game against No. 20 Northwestern kicks off at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN. With Rupp Arena sold out and the Music City Bowl in Nashville, there will be plenty of fans taking in the marathon any way they can.

Mayor Jim Gray declared Friday “Blue-White Day” in an official proclamation from his office Thursday.

Both games start during business hours, so work productivity in Central Kentucky is sure to slip with both games streaming online. And Lexington’s game-day hangouts expect to be hopping.

“It’s going to be fun,” said Matt Burunoff, manager of Tin Roof in Lexington. “We’re opening at 11 (a.m.). I’ve already had people texting me that they’re going to get here a 10:30 and wait at the door or wait in their cars in the cold. … We’re in for a long one.”

The doubleheader means Tin Roof won’t be able to take reservations as it normally does for game days, so it will be first come, first seated. Burunoff said it wouldn’t be fair to take reservations for both games and potentially kick someone out who wanted to stay for both. Tin Roof will have a DJ for all the breaks in the action and live music is also planned.

“If the Cats win basketball, the crowd will be even more pumped for the football game, naturally,” Burunoff said.

It’s always first come, first seated at Buffalo Wild Wings on South Broadway where fans usually begin filling up the place up to an hour before tip-off.

Manager Tyler Myers said they’re staffing it just like an NFL game day and he expects it to be busier than that. Myers hasn’t been with BWW long, but he knows when it’s UK game day.

“You can definitely tell when something happens. If it’s a first down or a fumble or anything the whole place starts going crazy,” he said.

Here’s how to follow all the UK action Friday:

Louisville at Kentucky basketball

The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in Rupp Arena

TELEVISION　

Network: CBS

CBS broadcast team: Spero Dedes, play-by-play; Bill Raftery, analyst.　

RADIO

Over the air: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Satellite: XM Channel 83, Sirius Channel 83.

UK Sports Network broadcast team: Darren Headrick and Mike Pratt (Dave Baker and Rex Chapman host the pregame show)

INTERNET　

Liveblog: Follow and comment along with columnist John Clay’s liveblog on Kentucky.com.

Twitter: Follow live updates from Herald-Leader staff writers Jerry Tipton, John Clay and Ben Roberts. Visit Kentucky.com for photos, statistics, analysis, video interviews and more after the game.　

Live video of the game: CBSSports.com

Facebook: Photos and links on Kentucky.com and Kentuckysports.com pages.

Music City Bowl: Kentucky vs. Northwestern

The game is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. EST at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

TELEVISION

Network: ESPN

Announcers: Taylor Zarzour, play-by-play; Andre Ware, analyst; Olivia Harlan, sidelines.

RADIO

Over the air: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1, WLXG-AM 1300 (national broadcast)

Satellite radio: XM Channel 80, Sirius Channel 80

UK Sports Network broadcast team: Tom Leach, Jeff Piecoro, Dick Gabriel

INTERNET

Live video: You can live stream the game online from WatchESPN.com or the WatchESPN app, depending on your TV service provider.

Twitter: Follow live updates from Herald-Leader staff writers Jennifer Smith and Mark Story.

Facebook: Photos and links on Kentucky.com and Kentuckysports.com pages

This story was originally published December 28, 2017 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Lots of ways to take a Big Blue break for Kentucky’s basketball-football doubleheader."