Kentucky Men's Basketball announces date, time, streaming plan for Pro Day event
Kentucky has released a lot of information over the past week regarding their preseason events before tip-off in November. That now includes their Pro Day event with all the details for it now out.
Kentucky announced that Pro Day will take place on October 7th, which is just over a week out now, from 6-7:30 p.m. ET. They will host it inside Historic Memorial Coliseum for the first time rather than the Joe Craft Center or Rupp Arena as in years past. As for viewing, it will be available for fans to stream on SEC Network+ from ESPN.
“All 30 NBA teams will have a presence at UK’s annual Pro Day, which provides organizations with an up-close look at the current Wildcats’ roster,” read the release from the program. “The event will serve as a warm-up before Big Blue Madness, which will take place on Oct. 11, in Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center, providing fans with two unique opportunities to watch the squad under Pope’s direction.”
Dick Gabriel and Jack ‘Goose’ Givens from the UK Sports Network will be on the call for the event.
Kentucky began putting on a Pro Day back a decade ago under John Calipari. It became a way for scouts from the association to get a good, early look at draft prospects on their roster ahead of the season with it becoming bigger each preseason for the team.
This one will now be different with it under their new head coach in Mark Pope. It’ll also be a much different roster to evaluate for the next level considering the young talent that the previous tenure brought in versus the experienced players that this one is created with.
Pro Day will come before the unofficial start to the season in Lexington. Kentucky will begin with Big Blue Madness at Rupp Arena on October 11th. They’ll then play the Blue-White Scrimmage on October 18th.
Basketball is close to being back in the bluegrass this season. With this, it’s now just a few days out from starting at UK’s Pro Day.
Pope shares insight to what Blue-White scrimmage will feature
Kentucky is around a month out from tipping off their first season under Mark Pope. That’ll start with their preseason events in mid-October that’ll be getting a whole new look according to the head coach.
Pope spoke about the Blue-White Scrimmage during an interview last week on Kentucky Sports Radio. He expressed his overall excitement for it and said it’s going to be an all-out game for this team to really be playing in front of the fanbase for the first time.
“Yeah, I’m so excited about this,” Pope said. “This is just our regularly scheduled practice. It’s going to be – what’s going to happen is we’re going to scrimmage. Like, we’re going to live scrimmage. In fact, I think it’s going to be the first time the public will be able to see us live scrimmage for a full game where BBN will be able to see that. It’s going to be really exciting.
The Blue-White Scrimmage is getting an all-new approach with it being presented by Club Blue. The collective will take proceeds from the event and use them to benefit their efforts in name, image, and likeness. With that, Pope credited Club Blue and emphasized their significance in what they’re looking to eventually accomplish in Lexington.
“Club Blue is just taking this normal practice and they’ve turned it into this incredible event,” Pope said. “I think it’s going to be pretty epic. I’m really excited about all the things that we’re hearing that Club Blue is going to do around this.
“Club Blue is a linchpin organization in the future of Kentucky Basketball. Like, in this new environment, what Club Blue is doing to allow us to compete? I cannot overstate its importance,” Pope continued. “It’s quintessentially important to everything we’re doing. So the fact that we get to partner with them on this? They’re building this incredible event around our practice that’s going to be super cool.”
Fans will now be getting exactly what they’re hoping for with what Pope is promising that it’ll offer them.
“Listen, this is what I would say to BBN,” Pope said. “Come to this deal and bring your pom-poms because you’re going to cheer like crazy but also bring your notebooks because you’re going to be able to take notes and kind of have the best inside look of what we’re doing.”
“This is an opportunity for BBN to roll in there and really, really get to know us, how we do things, why we do things, and how we’re trying to build this,” Pope added. “It’s going to be the greatest fan experience in terms of cheering these guys on and getting to know them but it’s also going to be, in a sense, and coach’s clinic to get inside and dialed into who we are as a program.”