UK basketball extends agreement to play Gonzaga through 2027
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WYMT) - University of Kentucky men’s basketball head coach John Calipari announced some big news on his Twitter account Thursday morning. His squad will now face the Bulldogs of Gonzaga for the next few seasons.
Also excited to share that we’re expanding our agreement w/ @ZagMBB to six years.
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) October 6, 2022
Mark suggested we add two neutral sites and I said let’s play at Rupp and your place too!!
After neutral site games in 2024 & 2025, we’ll play at Rupp in 2026 & The Kennel in 2027.
LET’S GO!!
In a release from UK Athletics, the series has two games played in Spokane, Washington, two in Lexington and two at neutral sites.
Here is the breakdown by season:
2022 – Spokane Arena
2023 – Rupp Arena
2024 – Seattle
2025 – Nashville
2026 – Rupp Arena
2027 – McCarthey Athletic Center
“I am so excited that we have finalized this series,” Coach Calipari said in the release. “Mark is a great friend and what he has done at Gonzaga to build them into one of the premier programs in our sport is incredible. The mindset I have when I put together our schedule here at Kentucky is that we want to always challenge ourselves by competing with the best teams we can find and generate some marquee home games for the best fans in the country. We have done that with Gonzaga and I look forward to competing with them the next six seasons.”
“This is something Coach Calipari and I have been working on for some time,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said. “It’s an exciting thing for both programs, both schools, both fan bases, and all of college basketball. Instead of a two-year thing, this gives everyone something to put on their calendar and look forward to over the next six seasons.”
The teams enter the 2022 matchup having only met once before on the hardwood. Kentucky captured an 80-72 victory in 2002 at the Maui Invitational.
The first matchup between the Cats and the Dogs will take place at 7:30 p.m. on November 20th on ESPN.
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