Why locals will see a lot of Tennessee orange and Louisville red in Lexington this week
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NCAA Selection Sunday 2025: Brackets, analysis, predictions and more
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Selection Sunday 2025 as brackets are revealed for the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments.
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NCAA Tournament rules prohibit men’s teams from playing in their home arena for first weekend games.
With Kentucky headed to Milwaukee for its NCAA Tournament opener, Rupp Arena will instead host the Wildcats’ two biggest rivals this week.
No. 8 seed Louisville will open against No. 9 seed Creighton on Thursday (12:15 p.m.). The winner of that game will likely face No. 1 overall seed Auburn, assuming the Tigers survive their first-round game against the winner of the 16 seed play-in game between Alabama State and St. Francis (2:50 p.m.), on Saturday.
The other Lexington pod features No. 2 seed Tennessee against No. 15 seed Wofford (6:50 p.m.) and No. 8 seed UCLA against No. 9 seed Utah State (9:25 p.m.).
This tournament will mark the fourth time Louisville has played NCAA Tournament games in its archrival’s home arena. The Cardinals also played first-weekend games in Rupp Arena the last two times UK hosted NCAA Tournament games in 2013 and 2007. Louisville also lost to UK in the 1984 Mideast Region semifinals in Rupp Arena.
Both Louisville and Tennessee lost games to Kentucky in Rupp Arena earlier this season.
Tennessee has never played NCAA Tournament games in Rupp Arena but has played in the SEC Tournament in the building three times.
Wofford is coached by former UK walk-on Dwight Perry.
First-round games in the Lexington NCAA Tournament pod will be played on Thursday. Second-round games will be played on Saturday. Second-round game times will be announced after Thursday’s games.
Rupp Arena NCAA Tournament teams
AUBURN (28-5)
Seed: No. 1 (South).
How they got here: Coach Bruce Pearl and the Tigers have been ranked in the top five of the Associated Press Top 25 since the second week of the season and spent eight consecutive weeks at No. 1 before dropping to No. 3 before the conference tournaments. Auburn won the SEC regular-season championship by one game over Florida but lost to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament semifinals in its last game. Auburn leads the country with 16 wins in Quad 1 games, according to the NCAA’s NET rankings.
Local connections: Senior center Johni Broome, the SEC’s player of the year, started his career at Morehead State, where he was named the OVC’s defensive player of the year as a sophomore. Auburn senior athletic trainer Clark Pearson is a Franklin native and UK graduate. Pearl has been a longtime rival of Kentucky as coach at Tennessee and Auburn, but he is just 2-11 in Rupp Arena in his career. He snapped a personal 11-game losing streak in the building when Auburn blew out the Wildcats in Lexington on March 1.
TENNESSEE (27-7)
SEED: No. 2 (Midwest).
How they got here: Tennessee spent five weeks earlier in the season ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 but finished fourth in the daunting SEC. The Volunteers were projected to be seeded too low to be placed in the second Lexington pod for most of the last month, but an upset of Auburn in the SEC Tournament semifinals was apparently enough to leapfrog SEC-rival Alabama for that spot as the top No. 2 seed.
Local connections: As Kentucky’s oldest rival, Tennessee has played at least one game in Rupp Arena every season but one (2015) since the arena opened in 1976. Still, Tennessee has just 10 wins in Rupp Arena, including two in SEC Tournament games in the building. Four of those wins have come with Rick Barnes as head coach. Tennessee lost to Kentucky in Rupp Arena earlier this season.
UCLA (22-10)
SEED: No. 7 (Midwest).
How they got here: In its first season in the Big Ten, UCLA finished tied for fourth in the league. The Bruins opened Big Ten play ranked No. 15 in the AP Top 25 but lost their first four conference games. The second half of the conference season was kinder to UCLA, but the Bruins are unranked entering the tournament after dropping their Big Ten Tournament opener to Wisconsin.
Local connections: Junior guard Skyy Clark originally signed with Kentucky as a top-40 recruit in the high school class of 2022, but he was released from his National Letter of Intent and eventually landed at Illinois. Clark spent his sophomore season at Louisville before transferring to UCLA, where he is averaging 8.0 points and 2.8 assists per game. Kentucky fans always have a vested interest in rooting against UCLA as the Wildcats (eight) try to catch the Bruins (11) for most national championships.
LOUISVILLE (27-7)
SEED: No. 8 (South).
How they got here: First-year coach Pat Kelsey has the Cardinals back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. Louisville won just 12 games combined the last two seasons, but Kelsey used a rebuilt roster to finish tied for second in the ACC regular season. The Cardinals lost to Duke in the ACC Tournament finals Sunday.
Local connections: Louisville has previously played NCAA Tournament games in Rupp Arena three times, including each of the last two times UK hosted NCAA Tournament games. The Cardinals won two games in Rupp Arena on the way to the 2013 national championship. Louisville was upset by Texas A&M (coached by future UK coach Billy Gillispie) in the second round in Rupp Arena in 2007. U of L has one Kentucky native on the roster: junior walk-on Cole Sherman, a St. Xavier graduate.
CREIGHTON (24-10)
SEED: No. 9 (South).
How they got here: Creighton opened the season ranked No. 15 in the AP Top 25 but fell out of the ranking on Dec. 2 and has not returned. The Blue Jays finished second in the Big East, three games behind Rick Pitino’s St. John’s. Creighton lost by 16 to St. John’s in the Big East Tournament finals.
Local connections: Creighton has never played in Rupp Arena. Its only meeting with UK since 1948 came in Omaha in the 2009 NIT.
UTAH STATE (26-7)
SEED: No. 10 (Midwest).
How they got here: After finishing third in the Mountain West regular-season championship race, Utah State lost in the conference tournament semifinal. Still, Utah State’s No. 37 ranking in the NET was enough to earn the Aggies an at-large bid.
Local connections: Utah State’s only game against Kentucky was played in Memorial Coliseum in 1957, but the Aggies have played two games in Rupp Arena. Utah State lost to Seton Hall and Jacksonville in the 1981 UK Invitational Tournament.
WOFFORD (19-15)
SEED: No. 15 (Midwest).
How they got here: After finishing sixth in the Southern Conference regular-season race, Wofford made an improbable run to the conference tournament title and league’s automatic bid. The Terriers clinched the NCAA Tournament bid with a 92-85 win over Fuman in the conference tournament championship game on March 10.
Local connections: Wofford coach Dwight Perry played at Kentucky as a walk-on from 2006 to 2009. He appeared in 19 games across three seasons, scoring five total points. Senior guard Jackson Sivills is McCracken County High School graduate who started his career at Murray State. Sivills has started 23 games this season, averaging 9.3 points and 3.8 rebounds.
This story was originally published March 16, 2025 at 6:40 PM.
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