WKU Basketball: Tops Challenge Wildcats To Schedule Them
On what normally would’ve been a boring, hot and humid Tuesday, WKU’s official basketball account made some ripples on Twitter after seeing…
On what normally would’ve been a boring, hot and humid Tuesday, WKU’s official basketball account made some ripples on Twitter after seeing Kentucky schedule two C-USA teams (UAB and Marshall) for next season.
This tweet seemed to poke a little bit at the Wildcats, who haven’t played WKU in the regular season since the infamous 2001 NABC Classic game in Lexington where the Tops took down the #4 ranked Wildcats by 12 points, 64–52. It also insinuates that WKU has offered them before but they didn’t call back.
But WKU didn’t stop with this tweet. They followed with this offer to the Wildcats if they schedule them.
This definitely sounds like a great offer. It shows that to WKU, this matchup wouldn’t be about money but solely on state pride. And offering their money for the game to help a charity within the state is a very kind gesture, especially in the midst of this pandemic.
Whether it would be just a single home game at Rupp or maybe even a series where WKU plays at Rupp and maybe UK plays WKU on a neutral court (don’t hold your breath on them coming to Diddle Arena any time soon), this needs to happen.
Kentucky has refused to schedule WKU since that fateful November day in 2001 but hopefully with this humanitarian offer from WKU, the Wildcats could have a change of heart. Also several other people in the CBB universe are wanting this game.
Hopefully with the game being for charity and some extra outside pressure to play from WKU and UK circles alike, the Wildcats might at least answer the phone and talk to Todd Stewart or Rick Stansbury. It’s been long overdue for these two teams to play.
Louisville has had no issues with scheduling WKU. The Cardinals have even made trips to Diddle Arena and the most recent time was with them being a top-5 nationally ranked ACC school in 2014 so UK are really starting to run out of excuses.
Will the Wildcats swallow their pride and schedule the Tops? It will be interesting to see what they do. The ball is in their court and as I type this article out, they haven’t publicly responded to the deal. As for now, we’ll have to wait it out and see.
Update 1:30 PM CT
Per Nick Roush at Kentucky Sports Radio a game probably won’t happen in 2020–21 but is more than possible in the future:
“Our nonconference schedule is complete for this upcoming season but we will continue to discuss scheduling opportunities with WKU for future seasons,” said a UK spokesman.
While it is disappointing that a game probably won’t happen this season (especially with perhaps WKU’s most loaded team in a while), the fact that they’re actually acknowledging a potential game is huge.