Here’s what’s happening with those ‘either-or’ SEC dates on the UK basketball schedule

On Tuesday afternoon, a much-anticipated time on the annual Kentucky basketball offseason calendar arrived a little earlier than usual.

That’s when the SEC revealed its game dates for the 2024-25 season, meaning that the full schedule for Mark Pope’s first run as UK’s head coach was complete. Except for one problem: that 2024-25 schedule wasn’t actually complete.

This time, the SEC included “either-or” dates for nearly all of its midweek games. With very few exceptions, each team’s midweek matchups were tagged with a “Tuesday or Wednesday” designation. So, every team knew who and where they were playing that week, but they didn’t know exactly when the game would actually take place.

For the league’s 16 teams — and fans looking to plan ahead — the wait for a full schedule continued. It doesn’t sound like that wait will last much longer.

Fears of the SEC delaying its schedule until closer to the actual games to “flex” dates and tip-off times for TV purposes are apparently unfounded.

A league spokesperson told the Herald-Leader that ESPN — the SEC’s primary television partner — is still working on scheduling its midweek games and does not have those matchups finalized. Since the SEC basically had its schedule ready to go this week, it went ahead and announced all of its Saturday games and its midweek matchups, just without exact dates.

ESPN is still waiting for other leagues to finalize their conference schedules before setting its TV plans for those midweek games. The network holds the rights to televise games from the SEC, ACC and Big 12, as well as several other smaller leagues, and — as of Friday morning — none of the other major conferences had finalized their league schedules for the 2024-25 season.

An SEC spokesperson told the Herald-Leader that the midweek game dates would hopefully be nailed down in the next couple of weeks, noting that the league typically has tip-off times and TV information by the middle of September.

The expectation is that will be the case again this year, and UK should have its 2024-25 schedule completely set before the middle of next month, well ahead of the start of the season.

As it stands, only one of the Wildcats’ midweek games is officially set: the UK-Tennessee matchup in Knoxville on Tuesday, Jan. 28.

Kentucky will play 10 Saturday games — five in Rupp Arena and five on the road — and the other seven games on the Cats’ schedule remain in Tuesday/Wednesday flux. Here’s a list of those games:

▪ At Georgia (Jan. 7 or 8).

▪ Vs. Texas A&M (Jan. 14 or 15).

▪ At Ole Miss (Feb. 4 or 5).

▪ Vs. Tennessee (Feb. 11 or 12).

▪ Vs. Vanderbilt (Feb. 18 or 19).

▪ At Oklahoma (Feb. 25 or 26).

▪ Vs. LSU (March 4 or 5).

Over the past three SEC seasons combined, the Cats have played a total of 17 Tuesday games and 12 Wednesday games, with four Wednesday games in each year of that span. UK will not play at all in the Jan. 21-22 midweek window this season, a “bye week” of sorts for the Wildcats.

The UK women’s basketball schedule for the 2024-25 season was also released this week, and all of the Wildcats’ SEC games for Kenny Brooks’ first run as head coach already have exact dates.

Kentucky basketball tickets

When can fans start snapping up tickets to see Pope’s first Kentucky team play in Rupp?

It could be a while before single-game seats are available.

UK is still in the process of selling its season-ticket packages, and the renewal deadline for the 2024-25 season for current season-ticket holders is set for Thursday. Fans looking to get access to season tickets for the first time this year can enter a “season-ticket lottery” via the UK Athletics website. A limited number of upper-level tickets will be available via that lottery due to “the extremely high renewal rate” of season tickets, according to the university.

There are also a limited number of new, lower-level season tickets available for the 2024-25 campaign, but those can only be purchased with a “capital pledge commitment” to UK Athletics. More information on that option is available by contacting the K Fund Office at (859) 257-6300.

Last year, single-game UK basketball tickets were sold in segments throughout the season, and the first grouping did not go on sale until Oct. 17, just 10 days before the team’s first exhibition game. A similar timeline for single-game tickets is expected this year.

UK’s exhibition opener against Kentucky Wesleyan is set for Oct. 23.

2024-25 UK men’s basketball schedule

Kentucky’s full 2024-25 schedule has been set, though some of the team’s midweek SEC games will not get exact dates until closer to the season. Final times and TV assignments for all games will be announced later. Home games listed in all capital letters.

Oct. 11: BIG BLUE MADNESS

Oct. 18: 1-BLUE-WHITE GAME

Oct. 23: KENTUCKY WESLEYAN (exhibition)

Oct. 29: MINNESOTA STATE (exhibition)

Nov. 4: WRIGHT STATE

Nov. 9: BUCKNELL

Nov. 12: 2-Duke

Nov. 19: 3-LIPSCOMB

Nov. 22: 3-JACKSON STATE

Nov. 26: 3-WESTERN KENTUCKY

Nov. 29: GEORGIA STATE

Dec. 3: 4-At Clemson

Dec. 7: 5-Gonzaga

Dec. 11: COLGATE

Dec. 14: LOUISVILLE

Dec. 21: 6-Ohio State, 5:30 p.m.

Dec. 31: BROWN

Jan. 4: FLORIDA

Jan. 7 or 8: At Georgia

Jan. 11: At Mississippi State

Jan. 14 or 15: TEXAS A&M

Jan. 18: ALABAMA

Jan. 25: At Vanderbilt

Jan. 28: At Tennessee

Feb. 1: ARKANSAS

Feb. 4 or 5: At Ole Miss

Feb. 8: SOUTH CAROLINA

Feb. 11 or 12: TENNESSEE

Feb. 15: At Texas

Feb. 18 or 19: VANDERBILT

Feb. 22: At Alabama

Feb. 25 or 26: At Oklahoma

March 1: AUBURN

March 4 or 5: LSU

March 8: At Missouri

March 12-16: 7-SEC Tournament

1-Memorial Coliseum; 2-Champions Classic at State Farm Arena in Atlanta; 3-BBN Invitational in Rupp Arena; 4-SEC/ACC Challenge at Littlejohn Coliseum; 5-Battle in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena; 6-CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York; 7-SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

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