Kentucky to Face Purdue in Exhibition Game

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky men’s basketball team will host Purdue in an exhibition contest inside of Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center on Oct. 24 as part of its upcoming 2025-26 schedule.

A game time and television designation will be announced at a later date.

Newly adopted NCAA rules permitting Division I programs to play in the preseason enabled the teams to add this early-season marquee contest to their schedules. The game will not count towards official records or statistics.

Purdue coach Matt Painter (Purdue Athletics Photo)

The Boilermakers have advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 in consecutive seasons and return All-America guard Braden Smith. Smith became just the second player in NCAA history (Ja Morant) to have at least 500 points, 300 assists and 150 rebounds in a single season in 2024-25 and became the first Big Ten player to have 300 or more assists in a single year. Head coach Matt Painter owns a career record of 496-220 and is in his 21st season at the helm in West Lafayette, Indiana. Painter has advanced the Boilermakers to eight Sweet 16s, the seventh most among active head coaches, while he has led the squad to 16 NCAA Tournament berths in the last 18 seasons.

Pope and the Wildcats are coming off the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 2019 and return Collin Chandler, Brandon Garrison and Trent Noah who all contributed to a 24-12 season which featured wins over an NCAA-record-tying eight Associated Press Top 15 foes. Chandler shot 12 for 23 (52.2%) from distance over his final six games – all against NCAA Tournament teams. Garrison produced seven double-figure scoring efforts and shot 50.9% from the field in 17.3 minutes per game as a sophomore, while Noah’s breakthrough performance came in an 11-point effort in an upset of No. 5 Tennessee at home. 

Adding to UK’s firepower in 2025-26 is one of the highest-ranked transfer classes in the country. The Cats will add 2025 National Champion Denzel Aberdeen from Florida, a two-time NCAA Sweet 16 participant in Alabama’s Mouhamed Dioubate, an All-Atlantic Coast Conference performer in Pitt’s Jaland Lowe, National Defensive Player of the Year late season finalist Jayden Quaintance from Arizona State and Kam Williams from Tulane who earned American Athletic Conference All-Freshman Team honors.

Aberdeen logged 7.7 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game while shooting 41.8% from the field, 35.0% from distance and 70.8% from the free-throw line in 2024-25. In his five starts this season, he averaged 14.4 points and shot 41.4% from 3-point range (12 for 29). Dioubate averaged 7.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game for the Crimson Tide in 2024-25. He scored double-figures in 13 outings and had five double-doubles. Lowe started all 31 games for Pitt and averaged a team-high 16.8 points per game to couple with 5.5 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. Quaintance started all 24 games in which he played with the Sun Devils, averaging 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocks and 1.5 assists while shooting 52.5 percent from the field. Williams averaged 9.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.4 blocks per game, while shooting 41.2% from distance in his lone season with the Green Wave. 

The Cats also have two dynamic freshmen signed to the 2025-26 roster in Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno who were both members of Team USA at the Nike Hoop Summit in April. Johnson averaged 20.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game for Real Wild Energy in the Overtime Elite League. Moreno was named Mr. Kentucky Basketball after leading Great Crossing High School to its first state title in program history where he tallied 24 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks in the championship victory. He was also a McDonald’s All-American selection.