Finally. We are this close to live action for our 2025-26 Kentucky men’s basketball team. Although it won’t count on the regular season win/loss record, it’s still going to be rewarding to see it all unfold.

This preseason matchup will be considered just an exhibition on the record books, but it will vastly help each program get a quick reality check on where they rank-up against amongst quality competition at this point of preseason.

The exhibition will take place this Friday, October 24, inside Rupp Arena. The Wildcats will host preseason No. 1 Purdue in an event that will bring out a majority of BBN for some cold Friday night basketball.

The home team will be without Jaland Lowe (shoulder) after his expected short-term injury took place during this year’s Blue-White Scrimmage. They’ll also be without Jayden Quaitance (ACL) as he is still recovering from the injury he’s had since arriving to Lexington, continuing his sideline participation in these preseason events. Otega Oweh will be available for full action, but will likely be monitored on how much time he plays to prevent any strain on his toe/foot injury. He was limited to “no more than 3 minutes at a time” by Coach Pope during the Blue-White Scrimmage last week, but I do believe his leash will be more extended in this game than what it was for that.

Purdue brings back four starters from last year’s team, including Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn who have both been tabbed as unanimous First Team All-American’s. Each averaged over 15 points a game just last season, so expect them to contribute to the bulk of the offense when the ball is in their hands. The program successfully returned 80% of its scoring and is also now considered a veteran roster, an angle in which can be really valuable in today’s landscape of college basketball.

Also in the offseason, they added two players from the portal in Oscar Cluff (South Dakota State) and Liam Murphy (North Florida). To solid additions, but the program specifically added Cluff for interior protection and scoring, adding the 17.6 points and 12.3 rebound average he had at his previous school. Standing at 6-foot-11, he’ll be one tough matchup early on for Kentucky’s Brandon Garrison.

After being ranked in the AP Poll at No. 1 (at any point of the season) in four of the last 5 seasons, and finishing short in the Sweet 16 last March, a lot of the talking heads are saying that it would be a failure if this team doesn’t make the Final Four this season. That’s a lot of pressure for a program to have on them as it’s extremely hard to “just get to a Final Four”, but that’s just to emphasize what many people believe that this Purdue team is capable of this year. Kentucky will have their hands full, but so will Purdue.

The exhibition will begin at 6:00 PM ET in downtown Lexington. We’ll have coverage of it all on our social media platforms including more post game coverage on our YouTube.

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