‘Learn to fail fast.’ Calipari expects schedule to shape Kentucky for postseason run.
Kentucky announced a 2020-21 men’s basketball schedule that will challenge and prepare his freshman-dependent team to contend for a national championship, John Calipari said Friday.
“This schedule will serve as a great test for our young team,” the UK coach said in a news release. “We will have to learn to fail fast. . . . I’m confident what we’ve put together will prepare us to make a run at the end of the season.”
In the non-conference portion of the schedule, Kentucky’s opponents include Kansas (in Chicago), Notre Dame (in Rupp Arena), UCLA (in Cleveland) and Georgia Tech (in the Atlanta Hawks’ arena).
UK also got the date it wanted — and refused to budge from — for the game at Louisville: Dec. 26.
Minutes earlier, the Southeastern Conference announced a league schedule that also suggests a challenge for a Kentucky team that needs to replace 94 percent of last season’s scoring and 92.4 percent of the minutes played.
Four of Kentucky’s five home-and-home opponents are widely projected to finish in the top half of the league race: Tennessee, Alabama, Florida and Auburn. The exception is Vanderbilt, which finished in last place the two most recent seasons.
Additional home games will be against South Carolina, LSU, Arkansas and Texas A&M. UK will also play at Mississippi State, Georgia, Missouri and Ole Miss.
Florida remains the only team that Kentucky has played home-and-home against every season since the SEC expanded to an 18-game league schedule in 2012-13.
The last time Kentucky did not play a home-and-home set of games against Florida was in the 1963-64 season. So, 2020-21 will mark the 57th straight season that includes two UK-Florida games.
Kentucky had played two games against Tennessee and Vanderbilt each season since the 1920s. Then the SEC reduced those home-and-home series to one game against UT and Vandy in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons.
Until then, the last time Kentucky had played Tennessee only once in a season came in 1924. The teams played three times in the 1961-62 season when the Vols played in the UKIT in December, then SEC games at Tennessee in January and against the Vols in Lexington in March.
As for Vanderbilt, Kentucky had played two games against the Commodores every season since the 1926-27 season. That streak included home-away-from-home games against the Commodores in Cincinnati in 1996-97 and in Paducah in 1945-46.
Kentucky’s season begins on Nov. 25 with a game against Morehead State in what UK is calling the Bluegrass Showcase. Games against Detroit Mercy (Nov. 27) and Richmond (Nov. 29) complete this “bubble” event in Rupp Arena.
A first game on Nov. 25 marks the latest start to a Kentucky season since 2002-03 when UK’s first game came on that date against Arizona State in the Maui Invitational.
Kentucky last started a season later than Nov. 25 in 1994-95 when UK’s opening game against UT Martin was played on Nov. 26.
Starting seasons in early November is a relatively new phenomenon for Kentucky. The first 76 seasons of Kentucky basketball began with a game later than Nov. 25. The latest start came in the very first season: Feb. 6, 1903, against Georgetown College.
This streak ended in the 1979-80 season when Kentucky’s first game was played on Nov. 17, 1979. No. 3 Duke beat No. 2 Kentucky 82-76 in overtime in the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass.
In the news release, Calipari saluted his staff for adjusting to the changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The non-conference schedule fell mostly into place, he said.
“With all that we’ve been through the last eight months, we are beyond grateful to return to competition …,” Calipari said. The resulting schedule will “challenge our guys and help them grow.”
2020-21 UK schedule
Home games in capital letters. Remaining tip-off times and TV networks to be announced later:
Nov. 12: PRO DAY, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
Nov. 20: BIG BLUE MADNESS, 9 p.m. (SEC Network)
Nov. 25: MOREHEAD STATE-1
Nov. 27: DETROIT MERCY-1
Nov. 29: RICHMOND-1
Dec. 1: Kansas (ESPN)-2
Dec. 6: Georgia Tech-3
Dec. 12: NOTRE DAME
Dec. 19: UCLA, 4:15 p.m. (CBS-27)-4
Dec. 26: At Louisville
Dec. 29: SOUTH CAROLINA
Jan. 2: At Mississippi State
Jan. 5: VANDERBILT
Jan. 9: At Florida
Jan. 12: ALABAMA
Jan. 16: At Auburn
Jan. 20: At Georgia
Jan. 23: LSU
Jan. 26: At Alabama
Jan. 30: TEXAS-5
Feb. 2: At Missouri
Feb. 6: TENNESSEE
Feb. 9: ARKANSAS
Feb. 13: AUBURN
Feb. 17: At Vanderbilt
Feb. 20: At Tennessee
Feb. 23: TEXAS A&M
Feb. 27: FLORIDA
March 2: At Mississippi
March 10-14: SEC Tournament-6
1-Bluegrass Showcase in Rupp Arena; 2-Champions Classic at United Center in Chicago; 3-Holiday Hoopsgiving at State Farm Arena in Atlanta; 4-CBS Sports Classic at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland; 5-SEC-Big 12 Challenge in Rupp Arena; 6-At Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 11:59 AM.
