First Scouting Report: Against No. 1 Kansas, UK seeks to make an early-season statement
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Game day: No. 16 Kentucky 81, Texas A&M-Commerce 61
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Friday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Texas A&M-Commerce in Rupp Arena.
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 16 Kentucky (2-0) will face No. 1 Kansas (2-0) in the State Farm Champions Classic at the United Center (seating capacity of 20,917) in Chicago.
The game will tip off around 9:30 p.m. (EST) and be broadcast by ESPN.
Kansas defeated Manhattan on Friday night at Allen Fieldhouse 99-61.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Kansas 24-11 but the Jayhawks have won five of the past seven meetings.
Most recent meeting
Jalen Wilson scored 22 points and K.J. Adams added 17 as Kansas beat Kentucky 77-68 at Rupp Arena in the final renewal of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Jan. 28, 2023.
Know your foe
1. Kansas and Kentucky have gone 2-2 against each other in the Champions Classic. Kentucky won 75-65 in 2011-12 and 72-40 in 2014-15. Kansas won 65-61 in 2017-18 and 65-62 in 2020-21.
Overall, Kansas and Duke are each 7-5 in Champions Classic games, while Kentucky and Michigan State have both gone 5-7.
2. The contest between UK and KU is a matchup between the two programs with the most all-time wins in the history of men’s college hoops.
Kansas passed Kentucky for the all-time lead in victories during the 2022 NCAA Tournament and finished that 2021-22 season with a 2,357 to 2,353 advantage over UK.
Last season, the Jayhawks (28-8) added six more victories to their all-time lead over the Wildcats (22-12) and ended 2022-23 10 games up, 2,385 to 2,375, on the Cats.
This offseason, however, the NCAA ordered KU to vacate 15 victories from the 2017-18 season after a Kansas player was retroactively ruled to be ineligible.
Those vacated victories returned the all-time wins lead to Kentucky. Through Friday night’s games, the Wildcats officially hold a 2,377 to 2,372 advantage over the Jayhawks.
3. Kentucky’s biggest challenge, literally and figuratively, against Kansas figures to be 7-foot-2, 260-pound center Hunter Dickinson. The former Michigan star, who chose KU over UK last spring as a transfer recruit, had 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists in 23:40 minutes of playing time in the Jayhawks’ season-opening 99-56 demolition of North Carolina Central.
In an 82-75 exhibition loss for Kansas at Illinois, Dickinson had 22 points and nine boards.
Last season, when Kentucky beat Michigan 73-69 in London, England, Dickinson went for 23 points and nine rebounds.
Containing Dickinson on the low block and keeping him off the glass in rebounding figures to be a major challenge for an undersized Kentucky — which will be playing without 7-foot Ugonna Onyenso (injury), 7-1 Aaron Bradshaw (injury) and possibly 7-2 Zvonimir Ivisic (awaiting eligibility ruling by the NCAA).
This story was originally published November 10, 2023 at 8:48 PM.
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