Mark Pope's Kentucky Wildcats have added a tough game to the non-conference schedule

Kentucky is set to face a gauntlet of a non-conference schedule.

University of Kentucky’s new men’s basketball coach Mark Pope points to the championship banners as he speaks about the victories he will soon be adding to display. / Clare Grant/Courier Journal / USA TODAY

Yesterday, Kentucky Athletics announced the schedule for the next two games of the six-year series with the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Last year, Gonzaga took down Kentucky in Rupp Arena 89-85 despite 21 points from star guard Reed Sheppard.

This year, the game will go back to Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena. This arena is home to lots of different events in Seattle and will now host the matchup between Mark Pope and Mark Few. This should be a really good game as Gonzaga is going to return some experience, and the Wildcats completely reloaded in the transfer portal under Coach Pope. This matchup will take place on December 7th, 2024.

Kentucky Athletics also announced that the matchup between these two teams in 2025 will take place in Lexington South, also known as Nashville, Tennessee. It's safe to say this game will draw a big blue crowd to Music City.

This matchup with Gonzaga coming up in 2024 is one of the Wildcat's many tough games out of the SEC. So far, the Wildcats will play Duke, Clemson, and Louisville outside of the SEC on top of the Bulldogs. With all of these games coming before the calendar flips to 2025, it's safe to say we will learn very early on how this Kentucky team is going to compete in big games.

If Kentucky wins some of these games against solid teams, it will prove that Coach Pope's team is going to be one of the top teams in all of the college hoops before SEC play even starts.