Kentucky Wildcats Basketball hosting Thomas More and Centre College for exhibition games

The Kentucky Wildcats have announced a pair of exhibition games for the 2017-18 college basketball season.

It will feature two in-state schools in Thomas More College and Centre College. Thomas More will come to Rupp on Oct. 27 and Centre on Nov. 3. Both games will be in Rupp Arena, though times and TV designations will be announced at a later time.

Both meetings will mark exhibition firsts for UK, who did face Centre many times in the early 1900s. UK owns an all-time record of 25-19 vs. the Colonels (Centre merged with Central University in 1912), but the two schools haven’t met since Feb. 13, 1929. Kentucky has never played Thomas More in an exhibition or a regular-season game.

Thomas More, a Division III school, went 22-7 last season and won the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.

Centre, also a member of Division III, went 14-11 in 2016-17 and finished in second place in the Southern Athletic Association.

Cawood Ledford, UK’s legendary radio play-by-play announcer from 1953-92 and UK Athletics Hall of Famer, attended Centre College. There’s also Will Barton, UK’s current director of basketball administration, who played for Centre in 2008-09.

UK’s season will tip off with Big Blue Madness on Oct. 13, and the regular season begins against Utah Valley on Nov. 10.