Thursday Headlines: Kentucky Basketball vs. Louisville Edition

NCAA Basketball: Louisville at Kentucky — Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports

The date of the annual game has reportedly been set

The date for this year’s Kentucky-Louisville Basketball game has reportedly been set.

According to Jon Rothstein on Twitter, The Cats and Cards will face off on Thursday, Dec. 21.

Sources: Next season’s annual game between Kentucky and Louisville will be Thursday, December 21st at the KFC Yum Center.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) August 2, 2023

The annual rivalry game will be played a little earlier than usual this year.

Since 2008, the game has been played in December after Christmas or in January with the exception of the 2016-2017 season, in which the game was also played on Dec. 21.

Also of note regarding the date of the game: It doesn’t coincide with any of the bowls that have SEC ties. The only bowl scheduled for that day is the Boca Raton Bowl that night at 8 p.m. ET.

That eliminates any risk of a repeat scenario from last year in which Kentucky Football’s bowl game coincided with the Kentucky-Louisville basketball game. That created a unique experience, but not sure that’s a scenario fans want to do over again.

This will also be the first time since 2018 the game has been played at the KFC YUM! Center without capacity restrictions. The 2020 matchup was played there, but only in front of a reported crowd of around 3,300.

It should be an electric atmosphere as the Cardinals, in Year 2 under Kenny Payne, will be looking for a signature win after the worst season in program history last year.

In the John Calipari era at Kentucky, the Cats are 12-3 in the series against the Cards.