Future Mark Pope Scheduling Goals

This season, Mark Pope and his UK fightin’ basketball Wildcats will play a total of 13 non-conference games. But the reality is that UK only schedule 10 themselves, when you take out the Champions Classic, CBS Classic, and ACC Challenge games. So basically UK had a choice with 10 of it’s games. They did a good job of mixing in some bums with some decent mid-majors with a couple a good major games (Gonzaga, Louisville). The schedule should be more that acceptable for most fans.

But I would like to see Mark Pope take on a creative approach to future schedules to further solidify UK’s belief as the elite basketball program of all-time. Here’s my strategy:

Only play opponents that UK has an all-time losing record against. This way, when you certainly win all of these games, you won’t have opponents that can hold that over us. A look at some examples:

ARIZONA

All-Time Series: Arizona 3, Kentucky 2

Let’s schedule a Las Vegas game or something on the neutral front with the Wildcats. Plus these two programs have played some memorable affairs. Jeff Brassow’s tip-in in Maui gave UK a 2-0 series edge. But the Zona Wildcats have since won the 1997 title game, a rematch in Maui in the 97-98 season, and then a preseason NIT game in 1999. Let’s get a 2-year series in, one game in Vegas and the other in Indianapolis for a little 1997 payback.

UCONN

All-Time Series: UCONN 4, Kentucky 1

You could argue UCONN cost John Calpari 2 titles easily. The 2011 team, albeit not his best squad, only needed to beat UCONN and then 8-seed Butler to win the title. If Brandon Knight’s squad could have gotten past the Huskies, they would have likely blasted the Bulldogs. And then obviously losing in the 2014 title game as favorites was another title that slipped through his fingers. Anyway, there is no team that UK has a worse winning percentage against with teams they’ve played at least 5 times. Plus, their program is certainly at a low point currently, right?

PICK ANY 5: EVANSVILLE, GARDNER-WEBB, SAINT PETERS, OAKLAND, MIDDLE TENNESSEE, SAN DIEGO, UNC-WILMINGTON

All-Time Series: Opponent 1, Kentucky 0

All of these teams tripped up in the Cats once in their history. Some in the NCAA Tournament. Some in the regular season. But all terribly embarrassing losses for this program. You could resolve all of these series records by rotating 5 of these opponents a year for 3 years. Plus, you can’t just play elite programs in all your games. So this would ease up the schedule as well.

GEORGETOWN

All-Time Series: Georgetown 2, Kentucky 0

Older fans will remember the 1984 Final Four clash where UK only mustered 11 second half points in a loss to Patrick Ewing’s championship team. Facing the Hoyas now would be nice because they are a power conference team but UK would be highly favored. I think you could even give them a game in Washington DC.

MEMPHIS

All-Time Series: Memphis 1, Kentucky 0

I’m not sure many people remember the only meeting between these two schools. But Memphis thrashed the Cats by 17 in Maui in 2006. Yes, that was a John Calipari coached Memphis squad. I think if these two schools were to meet, you should sit Cal courtside and just let both fanbases boo him throughout the game.

SOUTHERN CAL

All-Time Series: USC 3, Kentucky 0

Losses in 1959 and 1961 are ones that most fans were not alive for. But a forgotten upset loss in UK history was losing to the Trojans in 2001. The Cats were in line to play Duke in Philadelphia in the Elite 8 if they could get past USC. They had a junior Tayshaun Prince, sophomore Keith Bogans, elite Jason Parker. That team was really, really good. And they laid a complete egg against USC. Anyway, UK could get back on top of this series easily I think now that superstar Bronny James is no longer on roster.

There you go. 5 games against top tier opponents (plus the 3 classic games). 5 games against mid-major teams we have embarrassing losses against. Balanced schedule. And start to rid this program of some of the dark spots on it’s resume.