Live updates: Kentucky vs. Colgate college basketball
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Game day: No. 5 Kentucky 78, Colgate 67
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Colgate in Lexington.
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Fresh off that thrilling 90-89 overtime win over Gonzaga in Seattle, Kentucky men’s basketball returns home on Wednesday night to face the Colgate Raiders. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. ESPN2 will have the telecast.
Ben Roberts, Mark Story, Cameron Drummond and myself will be in Rupp Arena to provide the score, stats, observations and updates. You can follow Ben on Bluesky at @benrobertshl. You can follow the rest of us on X/Twitter at @markcstory, @cdrummond97 and @johnclayiv.
You can also follow a dedicated Kentucky basketball list on X/Twitter by clicking here.
Kentucky men’s basketball roster
Colgate men’s basketball roster
Kentucky men’s basketball schedule and results
Colgate men’s basketball schedule and results
Ken Pomeroy efficiency rankings
Scouting report: Colgate
After making the last five NCAA men’s basketball tournaments under coach Matt Langel, Colgate has stumbled to a 2-8 start in 2024-25. The Red Raiders’ only wins are over SUNY-Canton 95-62 and at UNC Wilmington 72-59. Colgate did lose by just two points, 74-72, at Syracuse.
Brady Cummins, a 6-foot-6 junior guard, leads Colgate in scoring at 11.3 points per game. The Red Raiders are shooting 43.7% from the floor, 32.2% from 3-point range and 68.9% from the foul line.
Kentucky comes into the game having made only 27.1% of its 3-point shots over its last four games, but Colgate ranks 322nd in the nation in 3-point defense with opponents shooting 37.3% from beyond the arc.
Scouting report: Kentucky
The Wildcats will be without backup point guard Kerr Kriisa, who suffered a foot injury in the Gonzaga game that requires surgery. Kriisa was subbing for starting point guard Lamont Butler, who missed the game in Seattle because of an ankle injury. The hope is that Butler will be back on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Jaxson Robinson filled in admirably after Kriisa left the Gonzaga game with 8:41 remaining. Never mind that last year during a game at Oklahoma, then BYU guard Robinson told his coach, Mark Pope, that he was never playing point guard again.
Now 8-1 on the season, UK is currently No. 9 in KenPom’s efficiency rankings. Mark Pope’s club is ranked No. 9 in adjusted offensive efficiency and No. 24 in adjusted defensive efficiency. Colgate is ranked No. 271 in overall efficiency. The Red Raiders are 250th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 265th in adjusted defensive efficiency.
A Kentucky-Colgate connection
Colgate scheduled the game with Kentucky in part because of the school’s late chemistry professor Ephraim Woods, an Ashland, Kentucky, native and avid Kentucky basketball fan. Before his death on Feb. 13, 2023, after a battle with brain cancer, Woods served as the faculty liaison for Colgate athletics.
“My family and I thought it was incredible that head coach Matt Langel arranged this,” Aidan Woods, the son of Ephraim Woods, told the Colgate athletics website. “We weren’t completely surprised when we received the news, as Matt has mentioned the possibility before, and we knew that he would do everything he could to make it happen for dad.”
Aidan Woods and his family are traveling with the Colgate team to Lexington to watch the game.
“As a lifelong Kentucky basketball fan who committed himself to the Colgate team such that he felt like part of it, he would be watching the two most important teams in his life face each other. However, although he supported Kentucky since childhood, what he felt for Colgate was more personal because he knew the players and coaches personally and cared about them.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2024 at 7:26 PM.
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