Kentucky unveils new Rupp Arena basketball court design for 2023-24 season
Rupp Arena’s innovations aren’t limited to the exterior. On Tuesday, Kentucky’s men’s basketball announced it will debut a new floor design.
The design still includes Kentucky’s “UK” symbol at mid-court. However, a tan outline of the Bluegrass State will now be layered behind the iconic logo. The program is also removing the massive blue “Central Bank” advertisements on each side of the court that fans have long complained about.
Instead, sleek emblems will replace the distracting stickers. The Cawood’s Court marker memorializing legendary radio play-by-play announcer Cawood Ledford remains at midcourt in front of the broadcast table on the opposite side from the team benches, and the UK logo with “Mr. Wildcat” honoring longtime manager Bill Keightley is still in front of the UK bench.
The court will serve more than the men’s basketball team. With Kentucky’s Memorial Coliseum under renovation, the women’s basketball team and volleyball team will also play at Rupp Arena this year.
“The new court replaces the surface that was originally installed in 2001,” according to the program. “Since then, there have been sanding and redesigns, with the most recent in 2016 and additions in 2020.”
Kentucky off to a hot start this season
Kentucky’s first game on the new court is expected to be against UNC-Wilmington on Dec. 2. If Kentucky’s season opener was any indication, the court will see many wins this season. On Monday, Kentucky dominated New Mexico State 86-46 to kick off the 2023-24 campaign.
While head coach John Calipari is happy to win, he simply wants his team to focus on improving every day.
“I’m trying to get these kids to take all that kind of stuff off their plate and just learn to play,” Calipari said during the postgame press conference. “We’re trying to help them develop habits. And not break old habits. Those aren’t — they are there. We are just trying to make these new habits be more dominant than those old habits.
“We want to do that for the fans, but I’m trying to get us to think about us playing against ourselves, how good can we be, how do we get these other habits to be the dominant habits that we’re trying to play with.”
On Friday, the Wildcats will square off against Texas A&M-Commerce at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.