Kentucky has added another marquee matchup to their exhibition schedule
Kentucky has added their final exhibition game to the 2025-26 schedule. On Wednesday, it was announced that the Wildcats will be taking on the Georgetown Hoyas in Rupp Arena on Oct. 30 as part of the preseason schedule This comes after Kentucky added one against the expected preseason #1 team, Purdue, also inside Rupp Arena, which will be on Friday, Oct. 24.
Thanks to the new rule that permits D1 teams to compete against each other in the preseason, that is allowing teams to schedule marquee games in preseason form to test their squad before the season begins. Mark Pope talked about the exhibition game against Purdue in his press conference last week, where he said he’s excited for fans to experience a marquee game like that in late October. He then hinted at another exhibition game being added, which now turned out to be Georgetown. “We’re working on another exhibition game that I think is gonna be terrific,” Pope said at the time. A week later, Kentucky has Georgetown on the exhibition schedule.
Kentucky’s non-conference schedule should end up being one of the toughest in college basketball next season, and when adding in the two exhibition games, there’s no shortage of marquee matchups. The Wildcats will begin the exhibition schedule with Purdue (Oct. 24) and then Georgetown (Oct. 30), before taking on Louisville just under two weeks later on Nov. 11. It doesn’t stop there, with games against Michigan State (Nov. 18), Gonzaga (Dec. 5), Indiana (Dec. 13) and St. John’s (Dec. 20).
All of those matchups before SEC play certainly should help the Kentucky squad, with games to test them essentially all throughout the season. The Wildcats should put their non-conference schedule up against any other in the country, because it’s a tough one.