Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Basketball Schedule Edition

The 2018-19 UK basketball schedule is one of the great schedules in many years. Echoes of 2001, at least.

By Glenn Logan Sep 20, 2018, 9:47am EDT

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-South Regional-Kentucky vs North Carolina

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Thursday Morning Quickies.

So yesterday, the full 2018-19 men’s basketball schedule for the University of Kentucky was revealed. Here are a few observations:

How great is it to see what will arguably be a tilt between the two best teams in college basketball in November, for the first official game of the season? Not only that, how cool is it that it’s Kentucky and Duke?
The early schedule includes some teams that were really, really bad last season. VMI only won nine games, although to be fair, they started mainly freshmen and sophomores. North Dakota only won 12, and they didn’t even have that excuse.

UNC Greensboro figures to be a very dangerous opponent. They return most of their best-performing team in history, winning 27 games. Mark this one on your calendar, folks, it’s going to be a good one.
North Carolina’s on the schedule again this season, and for the first time in 17 years, Kentucky will have both Duke and UNC on the schedule. Last time that happened was in 2001, when UK defeated the Tar Heels and lost a barn-burner to Duke in the Jimmy V Classic.
The December schedule is a beauty. UNC-G, a trip to New York for Seton Hall, UNC-Chapel Hill and finally at Louisville. That’s a test, right there, for the early season.
How about this murderer’s row in January: At Auburn, vs. Mississippi State, vs. Kansas, all in seven days?
February is a brutal, brutal month for the Wildcats this year.

This is one of the great schedules Kentucky has played since… well, since 2001, when several of our non-conference opponents (including VMI) were on the schedule and the SEC was very tough. If Kentucky is championship caliber, the temper of their metal will be well-tested by March, and no mistake. This schedule is either the forge of champions, or the crack of doom.

Tweet of the Morning

#TBT We can not wait to officially induct this ⭐️ in the @UKAthletics Hall of Fame tomorrow night! https://t.co/MjpVqbGsGj
— Kentucky WBB (@KentuckyWBB) September 20, 2018

Congratulations to Victoria Dunlap! Well earned.

And:

Small Brain: Maroon 5 at the Super Bowl halftime show

Normal Brain: OutKast at the halftime show

Galaxy Brain: replace the halftime show with an elimination tournament of the Dr. Pepper tuition giveaway challenge and watch America seethe over the proper way to throw a football
— Zach (@zrau) September 19, 2018

Heh.

And now, from Derek Willis’ wife, Keely:

#bbn just thought I’d let you know that I just told Derek I love the name duke and he told me he’d rather cut his junk off than name his boy duke
— k e e l y (@keelywillis_) September 20, 2018

That’s how you hate on Duke right there…