Kentucky MBB announces two preseason exhibition games
The entire 2024-25 Kentucky men’s basketball schedule is beginning to come together. After learning the dates for Big Blue Madness and the Blue-White Game in recent days, we now know the Wildcats’ first real preseason opponents.
It was announced on Friday afternoon that Kentucky will host a pair of exhibition games in late October. Mark Pope‘s program will welcome to Lexington the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers (AKA, the Fighting Ryan Lemonds) on Wednesday, October 23 and the Minnesota State Mankato Mavericks on Tuesday, October 29. Both games will be played inside of Rupp Arena.
If you remember, ESPN’s Myron Medcalf broke the news on Minnesota State Mankato back in July. Tipoff times and TV assignments will be announced at a later time, per UK.
Kentucky has won 31 straight exhibition matchups and holds an all-time record of 152-12 in these preseason showdowns. The Wildcats have taken on Kentucky Wesleyan twice before in exhibitions, once in 2004 and again in 2019. The two programs were somewhat regular opponents from 1910-1939, going head-to-head 11 times during that span. Kentucky Wesleyan finished with a 21-9 (15-5 in G-MAC) record in the 2023-24 season.
As for Minnesota State Mankato, the Mavericks are the reigning 2024 Division II National Champions, which they won on a game-winning three-pointer with under a second left in the game. They posted an overall record of 35-2 during that run. This will be Minnesota State Mankato’s first-ever meeting against Kentucky and its first Division I opponent since the 2019-20 season.
We’re still roughly two months away from Big Blue Madness (Oct. 11) and the Blue-White Game (Oct. 18), but the excitement surrounding Pope’s debut as head coach continues to grow.
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