Kentucky Basketball: Wildcats To Host Kansas Jayhawks

In this year’s edition of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, John Calipari and Kentucky basketball will play host to Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks.

The 2016-17 college basketball season projects to be one of unfathomable importance. The general consensus is that the 2017 NBA Draft plays home to some of the most gifted prospects of the decade.

In turn, the college basketball landscape will be forever altered by these talented athletes—many of whom play for the Kentucky Wildcats or Kansas Jayhawks.

Even before John Calipari took over as head coach in 2009, Kentucky has been a haven for NBA-caliber talent. Under Calipari, that truth has been closer to overwhelmingly true than merely accurate.

The official release of the 2017 SEC Schedule confirmed that Kentucky will have a chance to prove that it’s the better team between it and Kansas on Saturday, January 28 at 6:00 p.m. on ESPN.

You probably want to print this off and put it somewhere important. The PDF is available at https://t.co/usNNulPWx8 pic.twitter.com/vWnb4iSGK9

— Kentucky Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) September 6, 2016

Following a 90-84 road loss to Kansas in 2015-16, Kentucky will be out for revenge.

The SEC/Big 12 Challenge will continue with two of the most decorated programs in college basketball history. Both schools have won a national championship with their current coach, and both have made multiple Final Four appearances.

That includes 2012, when Kentucky beat Kansas in the National Championship Game.

More applicable to the modern era is the fact that both schools pulled in top-flight recruiting classes in 2016

ESPN ranked Kentucky as having the best recruiting class of any team in the country in 2016. Kansas wasn’t too far behind at No. 6, which creates the foundation for this encounter.

Not only are Kansas and Kentucky high-profile programs, but they’re going to be playing with star-caliber players.

Kentucky will be led by the likes of Bam Adebayo, Isaiah Briscoe, De’Aaron Fox, Wenyen Gabriel, and Malik Monk. Kansas returns Carlton Bragg, Devonte’ Graham, Frank Mason III, and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, and adds two five-star recruits.

Josh Jackson is regarded as a candidate to go No. 1 overall in the 2017 NBA Draft, and Udoka Azubuike was the No. 4 center on the ESPN 100.

If any regular season game is going to establish how legitimate a contender Kentucky is, it’s this clash with Kansas.