Big Blue Preview: Kentucky vs. Indiana

Kentucky and Indiana renew their rivalry on Saturday night as the Hoosiers visit Rupp Arena for a border showdown (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The battle between the teams used to be an annual occurrence. However, the Cats and the Hoosiers have not met in nine years, and that game happened in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The last time Indiana played in Rupp Arena was 2011.

UK head coach Mark Pope remembers playing against Indiana (his UK teams beat Indiana twice). He likes that the rivalry is being renewed.

“I love this game. I love all these games,” Pope said. “What they’re doing over there right now is actually awesome because when you guys watch them play, you’re going to feel very much like Bob Knight Indiana, in the sense of they’re playing with unbelievable movement and motion and with high IQ. It just harkens back to a great tenure in Indiana basketball.”

The Hoosiers, under first-year head coach Darian DeVries, won their first seven games of this season before dropping back-to-back games to Minnesota and Louisville. Indiana did bounce back on Tuesday with a 113-72 win over Penn State.

Kentucky is 6-4 this season after beating North Carolina Central on Tuesday. Pope knows that the Cats are not where they want to be, but he likes this team’s chances to get there.

“Last year, we won more games against top 15 ranked opponents than anybody has in the history  of college basketball,” Pope said. “And this year, we’re 0-4 against top 15 teams. And we haven’t started out the way we wanted to but I’m telling you guys, we’ve got a lot in the hopper. We just have to figure out how to get it out on the playing court.”

Kentucky and Indiana square off for the first time in nine years on Saturday in the first game in a four-year span. It will be the 58th meeting between the teams, with UK holding a 32-25 edge all time, including a 10-3 advantage in games played in Lexington.