Mark Pope’s third season at Kentucky comes with two rivalry rematches that could tell a lot about where the program is headed.
The Wildcats are sitting at 1-1 against both Louisville and Arkansas under Pope, and both of those matchups are back on the schedule this season. Kentucky has handled Tennessee better, going 4-1, and Pope also knocked off top-ranked Duke in his first Champion’s Classic. But Pat Kelsey and John Calipari have each made life a little tougher on the Wildcats’ head man.
Louisville hardly needs much explanation as a rivalry. Arkansas is a newer source of heat, but it has quickly taken on real bite because Calipari left Kentucky for the Razorbacks. The bad blood may be fresh, but it already carries plenty of weight in the Wildcats’ world.
That sets up two games Kentucky would love to win at home and turn those series in its favor. A victory over Louisville would move Pope to 2-1 in that matchup, and the same goes for Arkansas. With attention already building around Pope’s third year, sweeping both rematches would bring a hefty dose of goodwill.
The Louisville game looks like the earlier heavyweight test. Even in Lexington, it figures to be tight. Kentucky may be shaping up as Pope’s best team yet, but Kelsey’s Cardinals are being projected in a similar range, and the December meeting is expected to be a top-15 matchup.
Arkansas is in that same neighborhood, too, though the next chapter of the Pope-Calipari storyline won’t arrive until late February, near the end of SEC play.
How Kentucky performs in those two games, especially against Louisville, should say plenty about the ceiling of this roster. Beat a top transfer class and you’re off to a strong start. Add a home win over Arkansas right before March, and it would be easy to read that as the kind of season Kentucky fans have been waiting for.
That would point to a year with single-digit losses, a team in the hunt for an SEC title, and, ideally, a better NCAA Tournament seed than last season. Neither game will define the season by itself, but each one offers a clear snapshot.
If Pope can grab the edge in either rivalry, Kentucky looks like a program moving in the right direction for the first time since he was hired. To get back to national greatness, that’s the kind of year the Wildcats need - and it starts with beating teams that are desperate to beat them back.
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