CBS Sports has listed the top 30 non-conference games before Christmas and Kentucky Basketball will be playing in 3 of them.
Take a look at each:
Tuesday, Nov. 17: Duke (7) vs. Kentucky (2).
Two games feature as many as eight guys on our list of the top 100 (and one) players, and this is one of them. Duke-Kentucky is always must-watch. Jamal Murray is a UK freshman wing who I hope gets matched up on Duke’s best freshman, Brandon Ingram. Both teams are freshman-heavy, yet Duke still has a few vets to rely on. This game should be fun and taken at face value, as Calipari and K teams obviously both tend to evolve to something entirely different by late February from what you see in mid-November.
Thursday, Dec. 3: Kentucky (2) at UCLA (51).
UK’s only road game in the non-con is this one. We remember last year, yes? The horror. UCLA scoring seven points … in all of the first half. An 83-44 UK win. Well, there’s no way it’s going to be that bad this year. I’m saying UCLA scores AT LEAST 25 points in the first half! Also, UCLA’s not terrible. We’re not high on them, but this is probably a coin flip kind of game. And any time you get UK in a true road outside of league play, that’s worth a watch.
Saturday, Dec. 19: Kentucky (1) vs. Ohio State (52).
The CBS Sports Classic will go down in Brooklyn, and if Ohio State is able to find some magic with freshman JaQuan Lyle, this might be a surprise game. The Buckeyes will dearly miss all that D’Angelo Russell brought to the floor, and this team will be young, but keep an eye on a guy named Marc Loving. He should be the breakout guy for OSU this season. Given the roster matchups, by the way, I think this is a game that sees Skal Labissiere go for 20 and 12.
Read “The 30 best college hoops non-con games before Christmas” by clicking here.
All of those games will be fun and big tests for Kentucky.
Kentucky plays Louisville and Kansas as well and they are on the list of biggest non-conference game after Christmas.
