Kentucky had two of ESPN's highest-rated CBB games of the week

What do 2.5 million college basketball fans have in common? They like watching Kentucky play on ESPN, with the Wildcats bringing in two of the top six highest-rated games of the past week.

Kentucky’s 76-67 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday, Jan. 21 was the network’s No. 2 game of the week with an absurd 1.3 million viewers. Just a few days prior, the Wildcats’ 85-71 comeback victory — anchored by Oscar Tshiebwe’s 37-point, 24-rebound performance — pulled in 1.2 million viewers, good for No. 4 on the week.

Kansas’ head-to-head battle with Kansas State on Jan. 17 — an 83-82 overtime win in favor of the Wildcats — came in at No. 1 overall with 1.5 million viewers. From there, Duke vs. Miami (FL) brought in 1.3 million, while Baylor vs. Kansas brought in 1.2 million and Virginia Tech vs. Duke managed 1.0 million.

1. Kansas at Kansas State – 1.5 million
2. Texas A&M at Kentucky – 1.3 million
3. Miami (FL) at Duke – 1.3 million
4. Georgia at Kentucky – 1.2 million
5. Kansas at Baylor – 1.2 million
6. Duke at Virginia Tech – 1.0 million

Now in the heat of college basketball season, this week alone brought in six of the 26 total ESPN games with over one million viewers this season.

ESPN's most-viewed #NCAAMBB games of the week (Jan. 17-23)

Last week, there were 6 games with 1 million or more viewers bringing the current total for the season so far to 26 pic.twitter.com/PaNmiO3pyV

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) January 25, 2023

Coming up Saturday? Kansas at Kentucky in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge at 8 p.m. ET, broadcast live on ESPN. Something tells me that’ll be a matchup fans are interested in…

UK Athletics issues ticket security reminder

… So much interest, in fact, that UK Athletics has released a warning regarding ticket sales leading up to the matchup. With a capacity crowd expected inside Rupp Arena for the showdown between Kentucky and No. 9 Kansas this weekend, the school is urging fans to use caution against counterfeit and invalid tickets. Only tickets purchased directly through the following outlets are guaranteed to be valid: 

• The UK Ticket Office 
• Ticketmaster, including Ticketmaster’s official resale marketplace  
• ReplyBuy 
• FEVO 
• Visiting team ticket office 

UK Athletics cautions against purchasing tickets through other outlets that may be unable to provide this assurance. That risk is magnified for sold-out games like Saturday’s.

We’ll see you there.