Bluebloods KU, Kentucky to meet at Allen Fieldhouse in 2022 Big 12/SEC Challenge

Gary Bedore
·2 min read
1

Kansas will meet Kentucky in a battle of men’s basketball bluebloods in the 2022 Big 12/SEC Challenge, the leagues announced Wednesday.

The KU-UK game will be at Allen Fieldhouse.

Missouri will travel to Iowa State and Kansas State will play at Mississippi as part of the 10-game challenge. Also, Baylor will travel to Alabama and it’ll be West Virginia at Arkansas, Oklahoma at Auburn, Oklahoma State at Florida, LSU at TCU, Mississippi State at Texas Tech and Tennessee at Texas.

All games will be Jan. 29. Game times will be announced at a later date.

The KU-Kentucky game will match the teams that rank Nos. 1 and 2 on men’s college basketball’s victory list (UK has 2,327 wins; KU 2,323). Kentucky leads the all-time series against KU, 23-10. KU won the last meeting, 65-62, in the Champions Classic on Dec. 1, 2020 in Indianapolis.

KU has won four of the last five meetings between the teams. KU is 2-1 versus Kentucky in the Big 12/SEC Challenge and 2-2 versus UK in the Champions Classic.

Kentucky won the last Big 12/SEC Challenge meeting vs. KU, 71-63, on Jan. 26, 2019 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.

KU coach Bill Self is 4-4 versus Kentucky teams coached by John Calipari.

KU is 5-3 overall in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. Kentucky is 4-3. K-State is 3-5 and Missouri 2-2. The Tigers did not have a game scheduled in the challenge four times.

Tennessee upended KU, 80-61, last season in Knoxville, Tennessee. Also last season, Missouri beat TCU, 102-98, in overtime and Kansas State lost to Texas A&M, 68-61. In 2020, KU beat Tennessee, 74-68, while Missouri lost to West Virginia, 74-51, and Kansas State lost to Alabama, 77-74.

The SEC won the event a year ago with five wins in nine games. It was the second time in the event’s eight-year history the SEC won the challenge outright. Last year’s Texas-Kentucky game was not played because of positive COVID-19 tests in the Wildcats’ program.

The Big 12 has won 44 games to the SEC’s 35 in the eight years of the Challenge. The Big 12 has a yearly challenge record of 4-2-2 over the SEC.