On Tuesday night, the Kentucky Wildcats held an open basketball practice and telethon to raise money for flood victims in Eastern Kentucky. During the event, Kentucky coach John Calipari and Gonzaga coach Mark Few had a conversation for all of the fans in attendance. The coaches announced that the Wildcats and Bulldogs will play a home-and-home series starting this November. This year's game will be played at Gonzaga, and next season will be back at Rupp Arena in Kentucky.
However, there was a notable exception. Calipari mentioned playing in Spokane. Well, now we know why. On Thursday, it was revealed that Kentucky refused to play at ‘The Kennel' where Gonzaga plays their home games. That arena only holds 6,000 fans.
The Kentucky coach was blunt about his opinion on that, sharing on Twitter.
Anybody that wants us to play in a 6,000-seat facility, wants us to lose! And I get that. I tried to look back and find the last time UK played in a true regular-season road game with 6,000 or fewer fans. I stopped looking after the 70s.
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) August 4, 2022
“Anybody that wants us to play in a 6,000-seat facility, wants us to lose! And I get that. I tried to look back and find the last time UK played a true regular season road game with 6,000 or fewer fans. I stopped looking after the 70's,” Calipari tweeted.
Obviously Gonzaga wants you to lose. You are playing Gonzaga. Calipari would go on to retweet that he is excited to play in front of 13,000 fans in the Spokane Arena and then 22,000 Kentucky fans in Rupp Arena the year afterward.
“This guy gets on me all the time. He wants to schedule a game,” said Calipari during the call Tuesday. “But everything's got to be on his terms. I thought we were Kentucky?”
Nevertheless, college basketball fans are the biggest winners. Kentucky and Gonzaga on the court should be a lot of fun to watch and when they meet at Rupp next year, it will be the first time the Bulldogs have ever played at Kentucky.
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