50th Meeting of UK and IU Men's Basketball

On Saturday afternoon, the University of Kentucky and Indiana University men's basketball teams met for the 50th time. The last time in which they met at Rupp Arena was 1988, which also marked the last time that both teams came into the game ranked out of the top 25.

I had the awesome experience of attending the game, after accidentally running across decent tickets Thursday prior. There are two games that I have always wanted to go to UK vs IU and UK vs UofL. With the history of the UK/IU game, this was definitely one to be at. 50th meeting and in Rupp Arena, usually it is held on a neutral site of Freedom Hall or Conseco Fieldhouse, but this year Freedom Hall had a scheduling conflict and it was moved to Rupp Arena.

It was worth every penny plus the drive from Bloomington to Lexington to watch the game. Prior to the game, I enjoyed a little local IU Alumni gathering, and then went into the game wearing all Kentucky. The royal blue shirt with Indiana across the front was stuffed in my coat pocket for safe keeping during the game.

It was definitely not the best played game by either team and the season is not looking bright for either team. The other strange thing about the game was the fact that I new the IU players better than I did the UK players. I suppose that is what happens when attending the third game in week for the same team. But dear UK fans do not worry, I was rooting for the Big Blue, and was in great distress towards the end of the game when UK could not handle the press to save their life.

Thankfully, UK succeeded to pull off the victory over an IU team that definitely wanted victory. I saw a few good things from UK, but there was just as many bad.

The next big test is Saturday at Freedom Hall against Louisville, who too is unranked. It would be interesting to see when the last time these two teams went into the big game both out of the top 25.

Go Wildcats!