Calipari announces six-year Kentucky-Gonzaga series, plus more future UK basketball games

In addition to unveiling the final schedule for the 2022-23 season this week, Kentucky Coach John Calipari decided to announce some intriguing non-conference games for the Wildcats’ not-too-distant future.

The most interesting part of Calipari’s big reveal Thursday morning: UK will play Gonzaga in each of the next six seasons.

It was already known that the Cats and Zags would play this year and next. Kentucky released its full 2022-23 schedule Tuesday, and it included UK traveling to Gonzaga to play Nov. 20 in the off-campus Spokane Arena. A return trip to Lexington in 2024 had previously been announced.

In addition to those games, Calipari said on social media Thursday that the two teams will play in two neutral site games in 2024 and 2025, with Gonzaga returning to Rupp Arena in 2026 and UK heading back to Spokane to play in the on-campus McCarthy Athletic Center — a.k.a. The Kennel — in 2027.

The neutral-site games will be played in Seattle (2024) and Nashville (2025).

“I am so excited that we have finalized this series,” Calipari said in a statement. “Mark is a great friend and what he has done at Gonzaga to build them into one of the premier programs in our sport is incredible. The mindset I have when I put together our schedule here at Kentucky is that we want to always challenge ourselves by competing with the best teams we can find and generate some marquee home games for the best fans in the country. We have done that with Gonzaga and I look forward to competing with them the next six seasons.”

Calipari also said that UK will host Michigan in Rupp Arena during the 2023-24 season, after the two teams face off in London this season.

The original agreement between Kentucky and Michigan called for the teams to play three times: once in London, England, and then once on each team’s home court. The COVID-19 pandemic scrambled those plans, however, pushing the London game back two years. The Cats and Wolverines will finally make the trip to England this season, with a game scheduled for Dec. 4. UK will presumably play at Michigan during the 2024-25 season.

And, the Kentucky-North Carolina rivalry will be renewed next season as part of the ongoing CBS Sports Classic. That game will be played on a neutral site.

It was announced last year that the Champions Classic, which Kentucky has played in since 2011, had been renewed through the 2025-26 season. UK’s opponent in that event next season will be Kansas, and the location of that game has not yet been determined. The Cats will play Duke in the 2024-25 season and Michigan State in 2025-26.

UK’s previous 10 appearances in the Champions Classic have been spread across four cities: New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Indianapolis (the site of this season’s games).

Kentucky will also play at Louisville next season, and the Wildcats will be on the road in the 2023-24 edition of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, against an opponent that has not yet been named. UK could also play a neutral-site game against Notre Dame next season. That matchup was part of the original agreement between the two teams, which have played each other on home courts in recent seasons. The neutral-site game was bumped from the 2022-23 schedule.

The Cats should be well-equipped to handle a tough non-conference slate next season.

Calipari is positioning the program to possibly end up with the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class, and high-profile commitments have already come in from Robert Dillingham, Justin Edwards and Reed Sheppard, with additional pledges from five-star prospects DJ Wagner, Aaron Bradshaw and other star recruits in the 2023 class ranging from near-certain to possible.

And while several players off the current Kentucky team could be gone to the pros by this time next year, the Cats will likely return a few intriguing talents, including five-star big man recruit Ugonna Onyenso, who was originally in the 2023 class and moved up a year to join Kentucky’s team this season and jumpstart his development at the college level.

The complete 2023-24 non-conference slate likely won’t be revealed until next summer or fall.