Why is Kentucky playing in a football stadium? And what do these Wildcats think about it?
In the immediate aftermath of Kentucky’s victory over Illinois in the NCAA Tournament last weekend, Collin Chandler and Trent Noah sat in one corner of the locker room, soaking in the idea that they would be moving on in March Madness.
The conversation turned to the next round of games, and it was casually mentioned that Kentucky’s would be played in a football stadium.
A quizzical look appeared on Chandler’s face. The UK freshman had no idea. A couple of lockers over, Noah had been listening in on the conversation. He, too, looked confused.
They had just defeated Illinois at Fiserv Forum, the home of the Milwaukee Bucks. They knew the Midwest Regional was going to be played in Indianapolis, but their assumption was clearly that they’d be playing next in the home arena of the NBA’s Pacers, not the stadium that houses the NFL’s Colts.
Well, you can’t accuse these young Wildcats of looking ahead in the bracket.
On Thursday morning, Chandler, Noah and the rest of the Cats walked out of the tunnel at Lucas Oil Stadium and onto the basketball court placed on top the Colts’ home field. The players took in a scene that made the cavernous — by college basketball standards — Rupp Arena look cozy by comparison.
Kentucky’s players scanned the stadium. The coaches did the same.
At one point, Mark Pope and director of basketball operations Nick Robinson, who had been an assistant coach at BYU under Pope before this season, walked around the court, taking it all in.
Pope and Robinson walked to the edge of the playing surface and looked down at one of the bench areas, which are lowered in these types of NCAA setups — everyone but the head coach forced to sit below the court itself. They grinned and shook their heads.
A little while later, UK assistant coach Cody Fueger sat down in one of those bench seats that looked up at the court. Fueger, who has been an assistant for all 10 of Pope’s seasons as a head coach, was asked if he’d ever been part of a game in a football stadium like this one.
“Never,” he said.
When it comes to playing basketball in a football venue, that’s pretty much the experience level of these Wildcats across the board. After they practiced for a couple of hours, UK’s players met with reporters. They all talked about how unique this setup would be for their game against the Tennessee Volunteers in the Sweet 16 on Friday night.
Nobody thought it would be a problem.
“It’s obviously a little different than, like, the Bucks arena that we were playing in,” Noah said. “But at the end of the day, basketball is basketball.”
“In the beginning, the depth perception is a little bit interesting,” Chandler said. “But I think we’ll be all right. We’ll get used to it. It’s nice to be out there and get a bunch of shots up with it.”
Senior forward Ansley Almonor said it was a “privilege” to be able to play in such a venue. He also pointed out that UK’s players have played in all manner of arenas already this season — from 10,000ish-seat SEC venues to Rupp to Madison Square Garden — and that the setup didn’t seem too far out of place.
“I feel like they did a great job of really trying to make this as much of a basketball arena type of feel out there, so that we don’t have to really do too much adjusting,” he said. “Because when I went out there, I didn’t think it was too bad. It was pretty similar to how it’s been. So I don’t think it’s that big of an adjustment.”
Sightlines and shooting depth are the strangest things for the players to adjust to, but none of the Wildcats felt like it would be an issue Friday night. At least, no one was going to use that as some sort of preemptive excuse should they shoot poorly against the Vols.
“I feel like all that stuff is kind of mental,” Noah said. “At the end of the day, it’s the same size hoop. It’s the same size ball. You just gotta find some way to put the orange ball through that thing. So that’s what we’re gonna try to do.”
Kentucky’s most celebrated shooter, Koby Brea, felt the same way.
“I don’t really think it changes anything,” he said. “I always say if the ball is round and the rim is a circle, then I think it’s all the same thing. Just excited to get out there and play.”
Why is Kentucky playing in a football stadium?
So, why, exactly, are the Wildcats in this position?
The other three regionals this weekend will be played in NBA-style arenas in Atlanta, San Francisco and Newark, New Jersey, but the Midwest is set for Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Final Four has been played in a football stadium for nearly three decades. In fact, 1996, when Kentucky won the title and Pope was a team captain, was the last time the event was played in a traditional basketball arena.
In the past, the NCAA hosted one regional per year in the football stadium that was scheduled to host the following year’s Final Four. That hasn’t happened since 2015, however, with the exception of the 2021 tournament, which was played in a “bubble” due to the COVID-19 pandemic and featured early-round games in Lucas Oil Stadium.
But, in this case, Indianapolis is hosting the Final Four next season, and the setup in Lucas Oil will allow for more fans to see the games. The venue is also used to handling this event. Next year will mark the fourth Final Four for the stadium since 2010, and it will host again in 2029.
“This allows for greater seating capacity at a normal regional,” said NCAA spokesman David Worlock. “For example, we expect a crowd of roughly 30,000 at the games in Indianapolis this weekend. If we held the event at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where the Indiana Pacers play, the attendance would be about 17,000.”
That worked out well, since three of the teams involved — Kentucky, Purdue and Tennessee — are all relatively close. Houston, the 1 seed in the Midwest, is actually the farthest from home this weekend. More recent estimates put the possible attendance at closer to 35,000 per night.
Obviously, that number is still far smaller than the official capacity of 62,421 for NFL games. That’s because the NCAA will use only half of the football playing surface for this week’s regional.
“The seating configuration isn’t the same as the Final Four,” Warlock said. “At the Final Four, the court is placed in the center of what would be the football field. At a regional, including this weekend at Lucas Oil, the court is tucked into what would be an end zone.”
Basically, half of the stadium is open for fans, with some temporary seating along one basketball sideline — taking up about half of the football field — and a big, black curtain behind that to block off the rest of the playing surface.
“It’s just huge,” Chandler said. “There are so many seats. … It’s so tall. It felt like there were like four decks of seats.”
There are actually five seating levels.
Two of Kentucky’s assistant coaches — Alvin Brooks III and Mikhail McLean — were with teams in that 2021 Final Four, with Brooks and the Baylor Bears winning the national title that year in Lucas Oil Stadium. (McLean was on staff at Houston at the time.)
Almonor said those coaches talked about how different the setup would be if it was the Final Four-style seating chart, which has a capacity of 70,000 for games in Indy.
If Kentucky can win two games here this weekend, the Cats will see for themselves. Next week’s Final Four will be played in the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Some of the Wildcats also talked about how bright the Lucas Oil Stadium lighting felt when they first stepped on the court Thursday morning.
“It was definitely bright on those sides,” said freshman guard Travis Perry. “It took a little bit of getting used to. So I was glad we had about 15 minutes to get warmed up shooting out there. But, you know, you need that. This is when the lights are the brightest. So it’s kind of ironic, but it’s also really fun, for sure.”
Kentucky’s history in football stadiums
The Wildcats’ last NCAA Tournament game in a football stadium didn’t go well.
And it happened in the same spot where these Cats will be playing.
Kentucky took a 38-0 record into the Final Four in 2015, when the Cats were defeated by Wisconsin in the national semifinals in Lucas Oil Stadium, two wins shy of a perfect season. Earlier this week, NBA star Devin Booker — a key reserve on that UK team — weighed in with his first post on X in more than a month.
“Hoops shouldn’t be played in a stadium,” Booker said.
Of course, that Kentucky-Wisconsin game was played with that full-stadium seating layout. And the Cats shot well from distance that night. They just didn’t shoot very many. John Calipari’s team was 3-for-5 on 3-pointers against the Badgers.
The previous year, Kentucky upset both Louisville and Michigan — with Aaron Harrison draining big 3-pointers in both games — in a regional at Lucas Oil Stadium, which had a similar setup then to the one that will be used this weekend. The Cats were 11-for-25 on 3-pointers in those two games.
Harrison hit another game-winning 3 to beat Wisconsin in that year’s Final Four in AT&T Stadium — home of the Dallas Cowboys — before losing to UConn in the national title game. UK was 2-for-5 from deep in the win over Wisconsin and 5-for-16 on 3s in the loss to the Huskies.
Two years earlier, Kentucky won the 2012 national championship in the Superdome in New Orleans, and the Cats were 8-for-21 on 3s over the two games that weekend.
Perhaps a sign of good things to come? The Alamodome — site of next week’s Final Four — is where Tubby Smith and the Wildcats cut down the nets as 1998 national champions.
Oh, and there is one player on this Kentucky team who’s been in this spot before.
Lamont Butler was a junior guard at San Diego State two years ago when he hit one of the most famous shots in recent NCAA Tournament history, a buzzer-beating jumper to lift the Aztecs over Florida Atlantic in the 2023 Final Four at NRG Stadium in Houston.
“It’s a little different,” Butler acknowledged of playing basketball in a football stadium. “But, you know, once you get that first day of practice and kind of feel out the rims and feel out the distance and things like that — you get used to it quick.”
Of hitting that famous shot in such a peculiar setting?
“At that point, I didn’t even notice,” he said. “I didn’t even notice there were people on the outside. I was just trying to win the game.”
And as Butler walked through the halls of Lucas Oil Stadium on Thursday afternoon, he was sure his teammates — with a couple of hours on the court to get their bearings — would be just fine.
“It’s regular,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re on a basketball court. It’s the same dimensions — 94 by 50 feet. It’s just basketball.”
