Kentucky vs. Duke finally has old-school, big-game feels again

There’s just something different about Kentucky vs. Duke — even if it hasn’t felt like it in a long time.

Kentucky holds the slimmest of edges in the overall series, 12-11, but since the Cats beat the Blue Devils in the 1978 NCAA Championship game, they’ve only won two of eleven. The last four games have been part of the Champions Classic, with Kentucky only winning one, a 74-63 victory in 2015 in Chicago. The next game in the series, a 118-84 loss to Zion Williamson and the Blue Devils in 2018 in Indianapolis, was especially humbling.

A good portion of our fanbase was not alive for the last significant Kentucky victory over Duke, the 86-84 win by the Comeback Cats in the 1998 Elite Eight. They’ll never know how it served as a bit of sweet revenge for the infamous loss to the Blue Devils in the 1992 Elite Eight at the hands of Christian Laettner, a moment we’ll be reminded of in every March Madness montage in perpetuity. Nothing will ever make up for the sting of The Shot, but Cameron Mills and Scott Padgett’s threes to take down the Blue Devils sure tried.

The fact that we’ve only known the joy of beating Duke once since then is cruel. The Champions Classic is great in that it brought the Kentucky vs. Duke series back into our lives, but only at the start of the season, meaning that more often than not, John Calipari’s young Cats weren’t ready for the spotlight. How can a generation of fans get excited about a rivalry that had become lopsided and therefore, meaningless? The most memorable moment may have been Alex Poythress getting his tooth stuck in the net in that 2015 win.

In the same sense, one could argue tonight’s game is meaningless. Duke is a 6.5-point favorite and has three projected top-ten draft picks, including Cooper Flagg, who is being called the future of the sport. It’s Mark Pope’s first season in Lexington and only game three. If Kentucky loses tonight — albeit by a respectable margin — no one will think less of Pope or the Cats. It’s only November 12, after all.

So why did I wake up ready to run through a wall? Memories from 1992 and 1998 have been playing on a loop to the tune of “Who’s in the house tonight? UK,” the chant from the 1996 team, which didn’t even play Duke. Before The Shot there was The Stomp. Before Padgett threw his arms in the air, victorious, Billy Packer was yelling about what Jamaal Magloire was doing to Wojo (he was doing nothing to Wojo). All that old hatred for Duke has bubbled up, surpassed only by the excitement of seeing this Kentucky team on the big stage for the first time. If Kerr Kriisa smacks the floor on defense, I may just lose my mind.

I’m not alone. All morning, I’ve been getting texts from friends who had tuned the program out in recent years but are now fully back in, counting down the minutes to tip off of a very late game they otherwise would have watched for maybe a half. It’s often been said that Mark Pope has given Kentucky Basketball its soul back; a big part of that is hating Duke. Go deeper and it’s the desire to be relevant, even in November, even in a game that we had been conditioned to disregard.

Now, just imagine how fun it will be if we win.

Kentucky vs. Duke Series History

Date	Game	Score	Result	Notes
11/12/2024	(#19) Kentucky vs. (#6) Duke	–	–	Champions Classic (Atlanta, GA)
11/9/2021	(#10) Kentucky vs. (#9) Duke	71 – 79	L	Champions Classic (New York, NY)
11/6/2018	(#2) Kentucky vs. (#4) Duke	84 – 118	L	Champions Classic (Indianapolis, IN)
11/17/2015	(#2) Kentucky vs. (#5) Duke	74 – 63	W	Champions Classic (Chicago, IL)
11/13/2012	(#3) Kentucky vs. (#9) Duke	68 – 75	L	Champions Classic (Atlanta, GA)
12/18/2001	(#7) Kentucky vs. (#1) Duke	92 – 95 OT	L	Jimmy V Classic (East Rutherford, NJ)
12/22/1998	(#3) Kentucky vs. (#2) Duke	60 – 71	L	Jimmy V Classic (East Rutherford, NJ)
3/22/1998	(#5) Kentucky vs. (#3) Duke	86 – 84	W	NCAA South Regional Finals (St. Petersburg, FL)
3/28/1992	(#6) Kentucky vs. (#1) Duke	103 – 104 OT	L	NCAA East Regional Finals (Philadelphia, PA)
11/19/1988	Kentucky vs. (#1) Duke	55 – 80	L	Tip-off Classic (Springfield, MA)
3/13/1980	(#4) Kentucky vs. (#14) Duke	54 – 55	L	NCAA Mideast Regional Semifinals (Lexington, KY)
11/17/1979	(#2) Kentucky vs. (#3) Duke	76 – 82 OT	L	Tip-off Classic (Springfield, MA)
3/27/1978	(#1) Kentucky vs. (#7) Duke	94 – 88	W	NCAA Championship (St. Louis, MO)
12/20/1969	Duke at (#1) Kentucky	98 – 76	W	UKIT Championship
3/18/1966	(#1) Kentucky vs. (#2) Duke	83 – 79	W	NCAA Final Four (College Park, MD)
12/31/1963	(#1) Kentucky vs. (#9) Duke	81 – 79	W	Sugar Bowl Championship (New Orleans, LA)
12/8/1958	Kentucky at Duke	78 – 64	W	–
12/2/1957	Duke at Kentucky	78 – 74	W	–
12/18/1956	(#7) Kentucky at (#13) Duke	84 – 85	L	–
2/1/1956	(#10) Duke at (#8) Kentucky	81 – 76	W	–
12/21/1953	(#13) Duke at (#2) Kentucky	85 – 69	W	UKIT
2/6/1932	Duke at Kentucky	37 – 30	W	–
2/28/1931	Kentucky vs. Duke	35 – 30	W	Southern Conference Tournament (Atlanta, GA)
3/3/1930	Kentucky vs. Duke	32 – 37	L	Southern Conference Tournament (Atlanta, GA)