Kentucky’s non-conference schedule just keeps getting stronger, with the latest addition coming in the form of an exhibition game at Rupp Arena.

It has been officially announced that, on Friday, October 24, Matt Painter and the Purdue Boilermakers will travel to Lexington to take on Mark Pope and the ‘Cats in a preseason bout unlike any other.

Kentucky has spent the majority of recent memory spinning wheels in exhibition games against unranked, mid-major programs. Rupp Arena fills up either way, sure, but the prospect of a potential top 10 team taking one of those spots brings a whole different kind of excitement to the scene.

High Class Competition

The Boilermakers have cemented themselves as one of the greatest, most consistent powers in college basketball, making the national title game as recently as two years ago against the UConn Huskies. Despite their shortcomings in that battle, the program that Matt Painter has built in the B10 is nothing short of a powerhouse. They won their conference tournament as recently as 2023.

In addition, Purdue’s incoming class is as strong as any, coming in at #1 nationally on FOX Sports’ early top 25 rankings list. Their retaining star guard Braden Smith has much to do with that placement, no doubt. For comparison, Kentucky slots in at #8 on the list; one place below Louisville, and one above Duke.

Regardless of the exhibition, “it don’t count” nature of the game, amping up the competition before the season officially begins will benefit both squads in the long run, giving them a chance to hone their skills against another ranked, highly-touted team.

First it was the St. Johns game, and now Purdue, who join one of the most difficult growing non-conference schedules in the nation. Mark Pope and the Wildcats will have their work cut out for them, though it’s clear he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Despite already stringing together one of the nation’s most impressive rosters for the 2025-26 college basketball season in Kentucky’s current 12-man roster, Mark Pope hasn’t hopped off the recruiting trail just yet.

During his appearance on CBS’ Jon Rothstein’s podcast, Pope said that he wants to “round out” the current roster with an initial addition, saying, “I have 12 guys right now… we’re actually going to try and round out this roster.”

“I’m actually scouring the planet right now,” he said. “… for guys that would fit in as maybe a redshirt guy that would kill it in practice, or maybe a last year of your career guy that wants to come here and put on this one-of-one jersey and be a part of this.”

“We need to add a couple more pieces but right now we have our roster that’s going to own the minutes on this floor.”

Finding Fits

So while it seems that the current, core 12 players will share the majority of Kentucky’s minutes next season, Coach Pope is still keen on finding productive ways to fill out the rest of the available roster spots.

This is a smart move for many reasons, though first and foremost may be Kentucky’s recent history with injuries, specifically this past season. Pope and staff had to dig deep into their reserves during his first year at the helm, resulting in midseason rotational hiccups and many “what-if” endings that may have gone differently had Kentucky been healthy, or, perhaps, had more options on the bench.

And while the entire segment is interesting enough, Pope specifically noting a “couple more pieces” opens the possibility of more than one ‘Cat making their way to Rupp before the upcoming season tips off. Just days ago, that idea seemed completely out of the question.

Where it’ll go from here is uncertain, but the Big Blue Nation can rest assured that Coach Pope and company are hard at work on the recruiting trail, proved by their sharp roster construction up to this point. If the team has a perceived hole, it will be filled in one way or another.

Started in 2014, the CBS Sports Classic is a non-conference, neutral-site multiteam event that has always consisted of Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio State, and UCLA. That is until now.

Earlier this week, there was a report that UCLA was looking to find a way out of the CBS Sports Classic. On Thursday, it was reported that they will be replaced with the St. John’s Red Storm, according to Dave Berov of the Eye on the Storm Podcast.

If the schedule holds true through the change, the Wildcats will play Pitino and the Red Storm, as they were scheduled to play UCLA. This will be a much-anticipated matchup between Pope and his former Coach, and will be the first time Pitino will coach against Kentucky since leaving Louisville in 2016, which he won.

The matchup is anticipated to take place in Atlanta, a place Big Blue Nation has consistently branded ‘Catlanta.’