Longtime Rivals Reunite in Lexington

Longtime Rivals Reunite in Lexington

By Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports

One of College Basketball’s beat rivalries returns this evening when the Indiana Hoosiers and the Kentucky Wildcats meet this evening in Rupp Arena at 7:30 PM on ESPN. This will be the 58th all-time meeting in the border war as Kentucky leads the all-time series 32-25.

This will be the first time the two have meet in the Regular Season since December 10, 2011, when Christian Watford hit the game winning three at the buzzer to beat the #1 Wildcats 73-72 in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Since then, the teams have only meet twice both coming in the NCAA Tournament ending a regular season series that lasted every season from 1969-2011.

Kentucky beat Indiana 102-90 on March 23, 2012, in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in Atlanta and the Hoosiers beat the Wildcats 73-67 in Des Moines, Iowa on March 19, 2016, in the second round of the tournament. There are many reasons as to why these two have not played in the Regular Season but that is now all in the past as the teams agreed to play each other in the regular season as part of a four-game series.

Indiana is 3-8 all-time in Lexington and as not beaten the Wildcats on their home court since December 20, 1988, 75-52 as Wildcats have won three straight at home against the Hoosiers and Indiana makes the trip to Lexington for the first time since 2010. The teams traditionally played the regular season series between Freedom Hall in Louisville and the RCA Dome in Indianapolis for many years.

The Hoosiers are 8-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten as Indiana is coming off a 113-72 win over Penn State Tuesday Night in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall that was one for the record books. The Hoosiers scored the most points on a conference game since February 17, 1990, when they scored 118 in a home win against Iowa.

Lamar Wilkerson scored a Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall record 44 points including a school record 10 three pointers Tuesday Night in just 24 minutes of action. Wilkerson is the only player in Division 1 or the NBA In the last 30 seasons to score 40 plus points and make 10 plus three pointers in a game while playing less than 25 minutes.

This is the first time since Mike Woodson scored 48 points at Illinois on March 3,1979 that a Hoosier player has scored that many points against a Big Ten opponent and the first time at home since Jimmy Rayl scored 44 points on February 12, 1962. Wilkerson is the first Big Ten Player since Luka Garza of Iowa scored 44 points on December 6, 2019, to achieve that feat.

The Ashdown, Arkansas native is one of eight players to score 40 plus points in a game this season and the only one to do so in less than 25 minutes. In the last 30 seasons Wilkerson is one of only 10 Division 1 Men’s players to score 40 plus points in under 25 minutes on the floor. Wilkerson is the first Big Ten Player since Wisconsin’s Jordan Bohannon hit 10 three pointers against Maryland on February 10, 2022.

Wilkerson is the Hoosiers leading scorer with 18.8 points per game. Tucker DeVries is averaging 17.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1 steal per game. Tayton Conerway is averaging 12.3 points, 4.7 assists and a team leading 1.9 steals per game. Reed Bailey is averaging 11.1 points while Sam Alexis leads the Hoosiers with 5.4 rebounds and 1 block while averaging 9 points per game. Connor Enright leads the Hoosiers with 4.9 assists with 49 total and 10 turnovers as the floor general.

Indiana is averaging 88.2 points, 20.4 assists and 9.8 turnovers per game. Indiana shoots 50 percent from the field, 38 percent from the field and 75 percent from the free throw line. The Hoosiers have knocked in 110 triples, dished out 204 triples and commit 98 turnovers. The Hoosier have scored over 100 points four times this season which is the most in a single season since 2016-17 when the Hoosiers hit the century mark five times.

Kentucky is 6-4 on the season have played a tough non-conference schedule with all four losses coming to ranked teams in Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina and Gonzaga. The Wildcats won against Nicholls, Valparaiso, Eastern Illinois, Loyola Maryland, Tennessee Tech and North Carolina Central.

Kentucky has scored 100 points or more in three games this season. The Wildcats average 85.5 points and 19.1 assists and 10.3 turnovers per game. Kentucky shoots 48 percent from the field, 33 percent from three-point range and 76 percent from the free throw line.

Five Wildcats average double figures with Otega Oweh leading the way with 14.4 points and 1.6 steals per game. Denzel Aberdeen averages 12.4 points and a team leading 3.5 assists per game. Mouhamed Diboubate averages 11.6 points and Collin Chandler averages 11.2 points per game. Malachi Moreno averages 10.1 points along with a team leading 7.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.

Mark Pope is in his second season as the head coach at his Alma Mater with a 30-16 record. Pope was the captain on the Wildcats team that won the 1996 NCAA Championship. The 53-year-old played at the University of Washington from 1991-93 and Kentucky from 1994-96. Pope who is 6-10 and was drafted with the 52nd overall pick by the Indiana Pacers of the second round of the 1996 NBA Draft.

Pope started his coaching career as an assistant at Georgia from 2009-10, Wake Forest from 2010-11 and BYU from 2011-15. Pope became a head coach at Utah Valley from 2015-19 and BYU from 2019-24. Pope has an overall record of 217-124 with three NCAA tournament Appearances 2022 Postseason NIT and three trips the College Basketball Invitational from 2017-19.

It’s been a long time coming both fan bases, but this is one of the best rivalries in College Basketball and it has been long overdue to return and that wait is about over. The landscape of College Sports is always changing with teams switching conferences and old rivalries being put on self but tonight the tradition of Indiana-Kentucky returns and for the next couple seasons it will not go away, and this will be good test for both teams, and both need the win to boost their NCAA Tournament Resumes.