An infrequent visitor headed to Rupp Arena to face Kentucky in SEC-Big 12 Challenge

The University of Kentucky men’s basketball team will face Texas in this season’s SEC-Big 12 Challenge.

Matchups for the 10-game event were announced Wednesday.

The Wildcats and Longhorns will square off Jan. 30, 2021, in Rupp Arena. The tip-off time and TV channel will be revealed at a later date.

The schools have met in men’s basketball only two times previously. The Cats beat the Longhorns 86-61 in the 1993 Maui Invitational and 63-51 in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge in 2014-15.

Kentucky finished the 2019-20 season with a 25-6 record overall and won the Southeastern Conference championship with a 15-3 record. The SEC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Texas finished 19-12 overall and 9-9 and tied for third place in the Big 12 last season.

Fran Fraschilla, an ESPN college basketball analyst who covers Big 12 teams, called Kentucky-Texas “a marquee matchup” for the network.

“It’s two very telegenic basketball programs,” he said. “They rate every well when it comes to viewership.”

Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook ranks Kentucky No. 13 and Texas No. 23 in its preseason top 25.

Of the Longhorns, Fraschilla said, “Some feel they’re the deepest team in the Big 12. And so with that combination of experience and depth and a couple of high-flying big guys, they should have a very good season.

“It’s an intriguing matchup because it should be Shaka (Smart’s) best team since he’s been at Texas.”

ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale ranked Kentucky No. 13 and Texas No. 27 in his preseason Top 40 this month.

The Longhorns are as experienced as any team in the country. They return all 14 of their players who appeared in a game in 2019-20 and add to the roster a top-10 recruit in forward Greg Brown III. Among the returning players are leading scorer Matt Coleman III, who averaged 12.7 points per game, and the team’s leading rebounder (8.2) in Jericho Simms.

The SEC-Big 12 Challenge, entering its eighth year, matches all 10 of the Big 12 members against 10 of the 14 programs from the Southeastern Conference. Each conference has the opportunity to host five games every year.

ESPN, the SEC and the Big 12 reached a deal last year to extend the Challenge through 2025.

Last season, Kentucky, ranked No. 15 in the nation at the time, pulled out a possession-by-possession thriller at Lubbock, Texas, defeating then-No. 18 Texas Tech 76-74 in overtime.

Six of last year’s 10 games were decided by single digits. The conferences each won five games.

The Big 12 has won four of the seven Challenges, the SEC one, and there have been two ties.

The Big 12 won the first three Challenges 7-3, 6-4 and 7-3 before the leagues split 5-5 in 2016-17. In 2017-18, the SEC won the Challenge for the first time, with a 6-4 advantage. In 2018-19, the Big 12 won 6-4.

The overall record now stands at 40 wins for the Big 12 vs. 30 for the SEC.

Kentucky is 4-3 all-time in the Challenge.

Across the seven years, UK has lost to Baylor, beat Texas, lost to Kansas, lost to Kansas, beat West Virginia, beat Kansas and beat Texas Tech.

The highest-profile game in this season’s Challenge figures to be Kansas at Tennessee. That will feature two teams in Blue Ribbon’s preseason top 10: No. 5 Tennessee and No. 6 Kansas. Kansas beat Tennessee 75-68 in Lawrence, Kan., in last season’s Challenge.

“We were hoping a year ago that when we left there that we’d have a chance to play them again,” Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes said. “We’re excited about having a chance to play Kansas again. . . .

“My disappointment is I don’t think they’ll be able to get the full Thompson-Boling Arena experience (because of expected COVID-19 restrictions on attendance).”

Since there are 14 SEC teams and only 10 Big 12 schools, four from the SEC have to sit out each season. Missing out on this season’s Challenge will be Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

The Jan. 30 meeting with Texas marks the first confirmed matchup on the Wildcats’ 2020-21 schedule, the release of which has been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The NCAA has set Nov. 25 as the season-opening date.

Herald-Leader Staff Writer Jerry Tipton contributed to this article.

2021 SEC-Big 12 Challenge

Matchups for this season’s event, which is scheduled for Jan. 30, 2021:

▪ Texas at Kentucky

▪ Florida at West Virginia

▪ Texas Tech at LSU

▪ Kansas at Tennessee

▪ Auburn at Baylor

▪ Iowa State at Mississippi State

▪ Alabama at Oklahoma

▪ TCU at Missouri

▪ Arkansas at Oklahoma State

▪ Texas A&M at Kansas State

This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 10:45 AM.