Kentucky basketball season opener is set. Cats begin 2023-24 against a program in turmoil.

The Kentucky men’s basketball team will open the 2023-24 season on Nov. 6, and the Wildcats’ opponent will be a team going through a major transition period.

UK is scheduled to host New Mexico State on the first day of the upcoming season, and the game in Rupp Arena will mark the first official college appearances for projected NBA lottery picks D.J. Wagner, Justin Edwards and the rest of the Wildcats’ incoming group of freshmen.

The Kentucky roster for the 2023-24 campaign is expected to feature a total of eight scholarship freshmen. Fifth-year player Antonio Reeves will return from last season’s team alongside sophomores Ugonna Onyenso and Adou Thiero, with West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell — another fifth-year college player — the only other scholarship Wildcat on the projected roster.

New Mexico State will count as that group’s first official opponent, as well as one of the Cats’ early tuneups for Kansas, which UK will face in the Champions Classic in Chicago on Nov. 14 in what will be the team’s first major competition of the season. The Jayhawks are widely projected to begin the season as the nation’s No. 1-ranked team.

Eight days before that, the Aggies will come to Lexington looking for a fresh start.

New Mexico State played the last game of its 2022-23 season on Feb. 8, forfeiting the final six games of its conference schedule and bypassing postseason competition.

That was the ultimate result of a tumultuous season that began with a November shooting that left a University of New Mexico student dead and a New Mexico State basketball player wounded. The shooting occurred outside a dormitory on UNM’s campus, where New Mexico State was scheduled to play that night. That game was canceled. Mike Peake, the NMSU player wounded in the shootout, was not charged in the shooting death of UNM student Brandon Travis. Law enforcement officials concluded that Peake acted in self-defense.

The following month, NMSU officials were made aware of hazing allegations within the men’s basketball program. Additional hazing allegations emerged in February, and school officials opted to cancel the remainder of the Aggies’ basketball season.

First-year head coach Greg Heiar was fired shortly after that, and New Mexico State later agreed to pay $8 million to settle a lawsuit involving two basketball players who said they were sexually abused by teammates. Heiar has since contended that he was wrongly terminated and used as a “sacrificial lamb” by the NMSU administration.

The Aggies had a 9-15 overall record and 2-10 mark in the Western Athletic Conference at the time their season ended. They will move to Conference USA for the 2023-24 campaign.

New Mexico State finished 27-7 and 14-4 in WAC play during the 2021-22 season, winning the conference tournament, earning a 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and upsetting 5-seeded UConn in the first round before losing to Arkansas in a round-of-32 game. Chris Jans was the head coach of the Aggies that season, and he is now in his second year at Mississippi State.

The Aggies made a total of 10 NCAA Tournament appearances between 2007 and 2022.

Longtime Sam Houston State head coach Jason Hooten is the new head coach at NMSU.

All of New Mexico State’s top projected contributors for the 2023-24 season are incoming transfers, a group that includes former Western Kentucky guard Jordan Rawls and several other new players. The early Torvik ratings for next season peg the Aggies at No. 193 nationally and sixth in Conference USA.

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