Pilots @ Kentucky--Alumni Road Trip!

The Pilot men head to Lexington, Ky. on Saturday, November, 26, 2011 to take on the Kentucky Wildcats. The Office of Alumni Relations will be leading a trip to Bluegrass Country to support the team in their effort to upend the Wildcats at Rupp Arena. A block of hotel rooms have been reserved for the Pilot faithful at the Hyatt Regency located next to Rupp Arena in Lexington. A Friday afternoon trip along the Bourbon Trail is also in the works. For more information contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 888-UP-ALUMS (888-872-5867) or alumni@up.edu.

$370 per double room. Price includes two nights lodging at the Hyatt Regency, two tickets to the game, and two seats for the Bourbon Trail tour.

Price does not include airfare, cost of meals/beverages.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Ooof. That is going to be a brutal week. UNLV and then Kentucky four days later?! Any other leads on non-conference dates? Aside from UK, our only other return game is at Ohio, right?

DoubleDipper wrote:Plan ahead for 2012; the Pilots are in Lexington to play UK on December 8,2012 (unless of course there is a buyout or schedule change - you never know with Cal).

Kentucky University, the 2012 national basketball champions, has rejected Indiana University’s four-year contract offer that calls for two neutral site games followed by two games on campus venues.

Hoosiers Athletic Director Fred Glass wrote Kentucky counterpart Mitch Barnhart on May 10, offering a four-year contract that would begin with two consecutive neutral site games at Lucas Oil Stadium in 2012 and 2013. The series would continue with a game at Rupp Arena in 2013 and at Assembly Hall in 2014, the contract states.

Eleven days later, Barnhart informed Glass that Kentucky had scheduled a game with the University of Portland for December 8, the same date being considered for an IU-UK game.

For the game to push through, Indiana offered to pay half of Kentucky’s $100,000 buyout obligation to Portland and agreed to shuffle its schedule to play the game on December 22.

Glass was later informed by Kentucky that UK would not commit to a contract over two years in length.

You knew it would be weak, but really this is beyond weak, actually.

Lafayette, Morehead State, Long Island, Samford, Portland, Lipscomb, Marshall, Eastern Michigan.
Yes, Kentucky’s non-conference basketball schedule, announced this morning, includes Duke and Maryland on neutral floors and road games at Notre Dame and Louisville, but the Rupp Arena portion is deserving of a flagrant foul.

More cupcakes than any local bakery!

I know, I know, Baylor is coming to Rupp. The school that UK beat in the South Region final last year. Yet no one is going to get worked into a lather over Baylor, however, not when the Bears just lost Perry Jones III, Quincy Miller and Quincy Acy. Scott Drew has an excellent class returning, but the appeal of a UK-Baylor matchup at Rupp does not match the appeal of a UK- North Carolina or a (yes) UK-Indiana.

Especially when Indiana is likely to be No. 1 or No. 2 in the pre-season rankings. You may be tired of hearing that, but it’s true.

Kentucky fans will flock to Rupp regardless, of course. They always do. The Cats are coming off a national championship year. John Calipari has a tremendous recruiting class. Again. There will be a few good SEC games on the home schedule, we hope.

But the school did just announce another ticket increase, both in the required K-fund donations and individual tickets. And given this year’s guest list, you can’t help feeling that the fans who pack Rupp Arena deserve a little more respect.