Kentucky’s latest social media post about its preseason results got exactly the kind of reaction that tends to light up college basketball Twitter: plenty of jokes, plenty of eye-rolls, and a fair amount of pushback from fans who thought the whole thing was a little too proud for exhibition wins.
On Thursday night, the Wildcats’ official account pointed out that Kentucky was the only SEC team to finish 3-0 in exhibition play while picking up two victories over P4 teams that reached the NCAA Tournament last season. The post quickly caught fire online, piling up nearly a quarter-million views in a little more than 12 hours, along with more than 230 comments and over 200 retweets and quote tweets.
A lot of the reaction came from outside the Kentucky fan base, and plenty of it landed in the same place: calling the post “cringe.” One user wrote, “I thought Kentucky was a blueblood with decades of tradition and didn’t have to post cringe s*** like this. My mistake lmaooo.”
The mockery kept coming.
“I’m old enough to remember when Kentucky measured their success by Final Fours and National Championships.”
“Kentucky brags about exhibition games now?”
“Hang the banner!”
Still, not everyone saw the post as something worth getting worked up over. Some Kentucky fans leaned into the irritation it seemed to cause around the sport, including KSR’s Brandon Ramsey, who backed the move online.
“This will bring some ‘hate’ from a portion of BBN and will give rivals some ammo to poke fun at the ‘Cats, but honestly I’m to the point where I love it,” Ramsey posted. “If you are the type of ‘fan’ who is annoyed by this type of post then I hope you stay mad, annoyed, and miserable all season.”
Others described the post as straight-up “rage bait.”
“I love the rage bait [Kentucky],” one user said. “Keep doing this, it’s hilarious to see anonymous non-UK fan accounts be so upset about it.”
The backdrop to all of it is Kentucky’s preseason slate under third-year head coach Mark Pope. The Wildcats went 3-0, with all three games played in Rupp Arena. They opened with a 69-49 win over Little Rock, then beat Texas Tech 76-65, and finished with a 90-76 overtime victory over Central Florida.
Kentucky enters the season ranked No. 23 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. The Wildcats were a 7-seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament before falling to 2-seed Iowa State in the second round. Tennessee, the 6-seed in that same region, went on to beat Iowa State in the Sweet 16 the following weekend to reach the Elite Eight.
The Volunteers and Wildcats will see each other twice next season. Tennessee visits Rupp Arena on Saturday, Jan. 23, and Kentucky returns the trip to Knoxville’s Food City Center on Saturday, Feb.
- There’s also a chance the two teams could meet again in the SEC Tournament or NCAA Tournament.
No. 8 Tennessee opens its regular season on Nov. 3 against Wofford at Food City Center.
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