Current Kentucky players ready for Louisville rivalry
Current Kentucky players ready for Louisville rivalry
They say they are “super pumped” to play their in-state rivalry.
It’s no secret that the Kentucky – Louisville basketball rivalry hasn’t been the most competitive over the last few years.
Since Rick Pitino left the Cardinals in 2017, the Wildcats have won five of the six meetings by an average of 18 points per game, and Pitino is even working himself back into the good graces of Kentucky fans.
That said, tensions have remained high amongst the rival fanbases. That was seen on Monday night as Kentucky’s alumni team, La Familia, took on Louisville’s alumni team, The Ville, in Freedom Hall for a trip to the semifinals of The Basketball Tournament, a $1 million, winner-take-all tournament.
There was fan banter back and forth and some fan altercations, but most prominently was a near brawl between the players. In attendance for all of it was the current Kentucky team.
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“I definitely think that they were in shock a little bit,” Trent Noah said this week of his teammates’ reaction to La Familia’s win and the environment. “That’s just what Kentucky basketball is, and that was on a smaller scale. I feel like whenever it gets to the season, it’s gonna be that times 100. They’re super excited for it.”
Noah, being a Kentucky kid, is no stranger to the importance of the Kentucky – Louisville rivalry, but for most of his teammates, this was their first experience of it.
“It was crazy,” Jaxson Robinson said this week about the environment at Freedom Hall. “Having all those fans there, seeing how much it means to the state of Kentucky…Louisville vs. Kentucky…it makes me excited to play any game.”
Fifth-year senior Koby Brea is also excited to experience one of the best basketball rivalries up close.
“Just to be around that kind of environment and see how hectic and passionate our fans are in that rivalry — we’re competitors, and we want to be a part of that,” Brea said this week. “We know that any time we’re playing against competition like that, it’s going to be a good game, and that’s what we want to be a part of. I think me and the rest of the group are super pumped for that.”
You even had Otega Oweh throw the L’s down after the game.
Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey have helped bring energy to each fanbase, and with new teams and the game scheduled for a Saturday, this year’s edition of Kentucky – Louisville should be a fun one.
