Kentucky basketball team debuts its new denim jerseys against Tennessee
Malachi Moreno was the first active Kentucky basketball player to hit the court for warmups Saturday night, about an hour before the Wildcats were set to play Tennessee.
Andrija Jelavic made his way out of the UK locker room a couple of minutes later.
And then came Braydon Hawthorne.
They were all wearing denim.
A little while earlier, UK associate coach Mark Fox was sitting courtside in a denim jacket, watching Hawthorne go through his gameday shooting routine as Jayden Quaintance put up free throws at the other basket.
Hawthorne and Quaintance were both inactive for Saturday’s game, but they were wearing warmup shirts specially made for the occasion. Meanwhile, UK staffers milled about the Rupp court area in their own denim outfits, from jackets to shoes to 30-year-old Final Four T-shirts.
The denim the Wildcats donned in their 74-71 win against Tennessee were a nod to the similarly styled jerseys that Kentucky wore during the stretch run of their 1996 national championship season.
Kentucky head coach Mark Pope was a co-captain of that team — arguably the greatest squad in UK basketball history — and several of the players on the 1995-96 roster were back in Rupp Arena on Saturday night as part of a 30th anniversary celebration of the group, which was called “the Untouchables” due to their blowout victories throughout that season.
Those Cats first wore their denim uniforms — part of a national campaign by Converse, the program’s apparel sponsor at the time — in an 88-73 victory over Arkansas in Rupp on Feb. 11, 1996.
Though the denim design has become iconic in the decades since that season, Pope acknowledged Friday that the style was not universally beloved at the time.
“I don’t think people liked them at all. I think people were like, ‘What is this?’ Right?” he said. “And I think that’s a great part of the story, right? We didn’t fall in love with the team because of the denim. We fell in love with the denim because of the experience that we all got to share together. And that’s actually what gives it its life, and that’s special.”
Pope picked out a special suit for this occasion, and Nike, which became UK’s apparel partner in 1997, supplied him with a custom pair of denim-themed shoes for Saturday’s game.
“I love it,” Pope said of the return of the denim. “It’s emotional for me. It’s special for me. I think it’s a connection point for all of us. And so it’ll be a great celebration. It’s fun to have ’em back. The whole denim vibe, I think, is awesome. So I think we’re going to enjoy it.”
The uniforms for Saturday’s game looked a little different than the originals.
The most noticeable change was the addition of the Nike swoosh to the jersey tops. The 1996 version had nothing other than “Kentucky” and the uniform number on the front of the tops, though there was a Converse logo on the Wildcats’ shorts. Converse filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and was acquired by Nike two years later.
The new denim jerseys also featured an SEC logo on the front.
Though this is intended to be a one-game-only fashion choice for the Cats, the Herald-Leader was told that UK will have the option to wear the new denims later this season. As of Friday, the team did not have any dark (away) jerseys in that style.
The return of the denims also coincided with several other promotions and new product announcements over the past few days.
On Thursday, the UK basketball social media accounts posted photos of the current team wearing “Nike Book 2 Must Be The Denim” shoes — a variation of Devin Booker’s signature shoe that incorporates the denim look — during a practice session in Rupp Arena.
A limited number of those shoes were available to fans at a pop-up event near Rupp on Saturday afternoon. They’ll be released to the general public next month, according to Nike.
UK’s retail partners also started selling denim-themed apparel earlier in the week, and the Herald-Leader was told that denim jerseys in the 2026 style are expected to be available for purchase later this year.
It was also announced Friday that a Converse “Kentucky Denim” shoe has been produced for the 30th anniversary of the 1996 team. That shoe, which resembles the footwear worn by the Cats toward the end of the 1995-96 season, will go on sale first at the Lexington shop Oneness on Feb. 28 before being released on the Nike SNKRS app March 13, which will be the same day as the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.
Kentucky’s current players have seemed to enjoy all the denim hoopla in recent days. The Cats were given shoes and shirts in the new theme, and UK guard Collin Chandler said earlier in the week that he had received a sneak peek at the jersey designs.
Asked if he’d ever played in denim before, Chandler laughed.
“I’ve never played in denim,” he said. “I think there’s probably very few people that have. But I’m excited for it. I’m excited for BBN. I know it means a lot. There’s a lot of nostalgia to it, especially for Coach, as well. And so I’m excited.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2026 at 7:37 PM.
