Kentucky’s 2021-22 men’s basketball schedule liberally spiced with challenges
By announcing the league schedule for the 2021-22 season on Thursday, the Southeastern Conference enhanced expectations that arguably John Calipari’s most experienced Kentucky team will face a challenging winter.
UK will twice play four of the five league teams that finished last season with the best NCAA Evaluation Tool ranking. That’s home-and-home games against defending champion Alabama (No. 8), Tennessee (No. 19), LSU (No. 25) and Florida (No. 34).
UK’s fifth home-and-home series is with Vanderbilt.
As for the SEC team with the second-best final NET, Kentucky will play at Arkansas (No. 14).
Kentucky’s most challenging time in the 18-game SEC schedule may come in mid-February. A nine-day span beginning on Feb. 15 will have games at Tennessee, and then home against Alabama and LSU.
Tip-off times and what network is televising each game will be announced later, the SEC said.
The SEC Tournament will be March 9-13 in Tampa, Fla.
As previously announced, Kentucky will play at Kansas on Jan. 29 in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge. UK has lost its last four games at Kansas. The average margin of defeat in those games was 26.3 points.
That average was skewed by the 150-95 blowout loss in 1989-90. That was the second-most lopsided loss in UK basketball history (exceeded only by an 87-17 defeat at Central on Jan. 28, 1910.
The other three losses were a 73-46 blowout in 2005-06, an 83-66 whipping in 1986-87 and a 90-84 overtime loss in 2015-16 that saw 33 fouls called on Kentucky. Four UK players fouled out. Two weeks later at South Carolina, UK players held back Calipari from confronting referee Doug Sirmon (who worked the game at Kansas) after being ejected inside the first four minutes.
Kentucky has lost five or more consecutive games on a non-conference opponent’s court only three times: six in a row at Notre Dame (1934-1950), five in a row at North Carolina (2003-2014) and five in a row at Indiana (1983-2008).
Kentucky has lost five or more straight times on an SEC opponent’s court only three times: seven in a row at Tennessee (1979-1885), five in a row at Tennessee (1973-1977) and five in a row at Florida (2005-2009).
Kentucky opens the season against Duke. That might revive a bad memory. A 118-84 loss against the Blue Devils began Kentucky’s 2018-19 season and caused the incredible — and surely unprecedented — sight of UK fans surrendering and heading for the exits during the first television timeout of the second half.
UK’s fifth home-and-home opponent will be Vanderbilt. The Cats play in Nashville on Jan. 11 with the rematch in Rupp Arena on Feb. 2.
The Wildcats will play four opponents once in Rupp Arena: Georgia, Mississippi State, Missouri and Ole Miss.
In addition to Arkansas, UK will play Auburn, South Carolina and Texas A&M once in away games.
In terms of driving time, Kentucky fans will have to make the four longest trips in league play: 974 miles to Texas A&M, 801 miles to LSU, 713 miles to Florida and 680 miles to Arkansas.
Earlier this summer, Kentucky announced what could be considered three homecoming games on the 2021-22 schedule: Nov. 29 against Tony Barbee-coached Central Michigan, Dec. 7 against Sean Woods-coached Southern and Dec. 31 against Tubby Smith-coached High Point.
In total, Kentucky’s non-conference will include nine games in Rupp Arena. In addition to Southern, High Point and Central Michigan, UK will play archrival Louisville on Dec. 22, Robert Morris on Nov. 12, Mount St. Mary’s on Nov. 16, Ohio on Nov. 19, Albany on Nov. 22 and North Florida on Nov. 26.
In addition to Kansas and Duke, Kentucky will also play Ohio State (Dec. 18 in Las Vegas in the CBS Sports Classic) and at Notre Dame (Dec. 11) in the non-conference portion of the schedule..
Ohio State has been competitive with Kentucky. The Buckeyes have won six of the last 11 games between the two programs. That includes the last two times the teams have played in the CBS Sports Classic (2019-20 in Las Vegas and 2015-16 in Brooklyn).
The final regular-season game will mark a return to normalcy. UK will play at Florida on March 5.
Kentucky’s final regular-season game last season — against South Carolina — was televised by ESPN.
Last season marked the first time in more than 20 years that CBS did not televise Kentucky’s final regular-season game. Beginning in 1999-2000, Florida had been the opponent 18 times in a marquee game perceived as a way for CBS to promote its upcoming coverage of the NCAA Tournament.
2021-22 UK men’s basketball schedule
(Home games in all capital letters. Tip-off times and TV networks to be announced later.)
Oct. 15: BIG BLUE MADNESS
Oct. 22: BLUE-WHITE GAME
Oct. 29: KENTUCKY WESLEYAN-x
Nov. 5: MILES COLLEGE-x
Nov. 9: Duke-1
Nov. 12: ROBERT MORRIS-2
Nov. 16: MOUNT ST. MARY’S-2
Nov. 19: OHIO-2
Nov. 22: ALBANY
Nov. 26: NORTH FLORIDA
Nov. 29: CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Dec. 7: SOUTHERN-3
Dec. 11: At Notre Dame
Dec. 18: Ohio State-4
Dec. 22: LOUISVILLE, 6 p.m. (ESPN)
Dec: 29: MISSOURI
Dec. 31: HIGH POINT
Jan. 4: At LSU
Jan. 8: GEORGIA
Jan. 11: At Vanderbilt
Jan. 15: TENNESSEE
Jan. 19: At Texas A&M
Jan. 22: At Auburn
Jan. 25: MISSISSIPPI STATE
Jan. 29: At Kansas-5, 6 p.m. (ESPN)
Feb. 2: VANDERBILT
Feb. 5: At Alabama
Feb. 8: At South Carolina
Feb. 12: FLORIDA
Feb. 15: At Tennessee
Feb. 19: ALABAMA
Feb. 23: LSU
Feb. 26: At Arkansas
March 1: OLE MISS
March 5: At Florida
March 9-13: SEC Tournament-6
1-Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York; 2-Kentucky Classic in Rupp Arena; 3-Unity Series in Rupp Arena; 4-CBS Sports Classic at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas; 5-SEC-Big 12 Challenge. 6-At Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla; x-Exhibition game.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 2:06 PM.
