Kansas basketball: Kentucky matchup may come with history on the line

On Wednesday, it was announced that Kansas basketball will host Kentucky in the annual Big 12/SEC Challenge on ESPN. The game will take place Saturday, Jan. 29 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Kansas and Kentucky are no strangers to one another as they have faced off eight times over the past 10 years between the Big 12/SEC Challenge, The Champions Classic, and the NCAA Tournament. They have split the series over the last decade 4-4, but Kansas has won four of the last five.

Any time these two teams meet it’s a highly contested and publicized affair due to the blue-blood backstories of each of these historic programs and their head coaches – Bill Self and John Calipari.

This one should be no different as Kansas is looking to bounce back from a disappointing season in which they failed to capture the Big 12 title and were demolished by the USC Trojans in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Jayhawks are a consensus preseason top-five team in the country thanks to the commendable additions they made through the transfer market with guards like Joseph Yesefu and potential All-American Remy Martin. Not to mention they have a top-10 recruiting class of freshmen joining the roster.

Kentucky is looking to bounce back in an even bigger way after one of their worst seasons in recent memory under head coach Calipari, finishing the season 9-16 overall and failing to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013.

They are a preseason top-25 team as well, thanks to their always stellar recruiting classes – including former Kansas target TyTy Washington – and the addition of some impact transfer players.

But the reason for the increased intrigue surrounding this particular matchup comes from the fact that both programs could be playing for more than just a single win.

Kentucky enters the 2021-22 season just four games ahead of KU on the all-time wins list with 2,327 wins compared to Kansas’ 2,323.

With how young and new Kentucky’s roster will be this season, the Wildcats may slip up early in the season and head to Lawrence with an all-time wins record that is tied or close to it with KU’s.

The atmosphere is always electric when these two play each other, but if this game determines who will be the winningest program in college basketball history at that time, Allen Fieldhouse could reach a new level of hysteria.

This year’s Big 12/SEC Challenge offers several good-looking contests, but none come close to this Kansas-Kentucky showdown.

Circle this game on your calendars because it could be the biggest matchup in these schools’ storied histories.