John Calipari opens the door for Kentucky basketball to play in ‘secret scrimmage’
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Game day: No. 4 Kentucky 56, Missouri Western State 38
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Sunday night’s men’s basketball exhibition game between Kentucky and Missouri Western State in Rupp Arena.
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Texas beat Arkansas by 30 points in a charity exhibition game Saturday. Duke and Houston — two top-10 teams — faced off in a scrimmage on the same night. Tennessee played one charity exhibition this preseason against Gonzaga, another closed-door scrimmage against Michigan State.
The so-called “secret scrimmages” — where two high-level Division I teams play in the preseason — have been going on for years. But the list of such games is seemingly getting longer, and many of the biggest programs in college basketball are going that route lately.
What about Kentucky?
Following the Cats’ 56-38 exhibition victory over Missouri Western State on Sunday night, UK Coach John Calipari certainly opened the door to a new preseason direction for the program.
Calipari said there have been discussions about UK playing in a such a game during the exhibition portion of the schedule, calling it an “administrative decision” to forego such games to this point.
“Obviously, a closed scrimmage where you can get work against another high-level Division I program helps you,” he said. “But, I understand it here. Because, financially, it’s a big deal to play (exhibition) two games. It just is. And that money goes to other sports. So now you start taking that money away that would go to other sports. …
“This program — it’s for all the other programs. So, I get it.”
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That doesn’t mean things are going to stay the same, however.
Calipari sounded in favor of Kentucky playing a different kind of preseason schedule with his comments Sunday night. He also said he had spoken to Kansas Coach Bill Self about the subject recently. Kansas and Illinois played in a scrimmage in St. Louis on Oct. 22.
“I think we’re going to have to address it now, because it’s become so prevalent,” he said. “We have to address it. Now it’s probably at that point, where, yeah, we gotta do like everybody else and play a scrimmage and figure out who it is and close the doors down and let’s go.”
College basketball teams are permitted to play two preseason games before the beginning of the regular season. Taking part in a “secret scrimmage” against a high-level Division I team — where fans are not allowed in the building — counts against those two games. Charity exhibitions — like the one Arkansas and Texas played this weekend — count the same.
According to a running list from longtime college basketball reporter Jeff Goodman, who has been charting these games for WatchStadium.com, Kentucky is the only team in the Southeastern Conference that did not play in such an exhibition this preseason.
And that’s been the norm at UK for decades.
Kentucky did play Morehead State in an exhibition ahead of the 2017-18 season, but that was an unplanned game that was thrown together late as a fundraiser to help those affected by hurricanes in Florida and Puerto Rico, as well as wildfires in California.
The game — dubbed the “Kentucky Cares Classic” — was played in Rupp Arena, and fans were allowed to attend, but it was not televised or streamed. All proceeds from the ticket sales went toward disaster relief, and UK had to petition the NCAA for a special waiver to play a third exhibition game that preseason.
Other than that, UK hasn’t played a Division I team in the preseason since the Cats started playing two exhibition games every season in 1991.
Obviously, playing a scrimmage behind closed doors — or a game with all proceeds going to charity — would mean UK would have to sacrifice the ticket sales for an exhibition game, and according to Calipari’s comments Sunday, that seems to have been a sticking point in the past.
The Kentucky coach also said he likes bringing in non-Division I schools for exhibitions like the one Sunday, when Missouri Western State — a team coached by former UK manager Will Martin, with ex-Cats Jon Hood and Perry Stevenson as assistants — visited Rupp Arena.
Kentucky State will play in Lexington on Thursday night.
“That’s a big deal for them,” Calipari said. “And so I like doing those things. But I also like this program, probably more than doing that. So that needs to be addressed. We will.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2022 at 10:20 PM.
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