The Indiana-Kentucky series will resume in 2025 without John Calipari
When Indiana and Kentucky announced an agreement to resume a basketball series beginning in 2025, Hoosier fans joked that John Calipari wouldn’t be around when the Wildcats visit Bloomington in 2028.
After news broke late Sunday that Calipari is leaving Kentucky to become the coach at Arkansas, it turns out that Indiana fans were correct. Calipari won’t be coaching the Wildcats for any of the four scheduled games against Indiana.
The two storied programs will play for the first time in the regular season since 2011 next December in Lexington at Rupp Arena and Calipari won’t be around to coach the Wildcats.
The official announcement that the series would resume in 2025 came last October after years of negotiations. It will feature two games in Lexington, one in Bloomington and one in Indianapolis.
The game at Assembly Hall is the last in the series and will be played in 2028. Calipari was a long-time obstacle in resuming the series because of his preference not to play games in Bloomington after the No. 1 Wildcats lost on a buzzer-beater to Christian Watford in 2011.
A friend of Mike Woodson, Calipari said last fall that he was looking forward to playing the Hoosiers again.
“This is a really important rivalry to our fans and the game of college basketball and we’re happy to bring it back,” Calipari said in October. “Mike and I have been friends for years and I have the utmost respect for him as a coach and as a man. Let’s do this!”
Indiana trails the all-time series against Kentucky, 32-25.
The two programs have only met twice since Indiana’s Dec. 10, 2011, victory at Assembly Hall. Kentucky beat the Hoosiers 102-90 in Atlanta in the 2012 Sweet Sixteen, and Indiana beat Kentucky 73-67 in the second round of the 2016 NCAA tournament in Des Moines.
Here is the full series schedule:
Dec. 20, 2025 – Rupp Arena, Lexington, Ky.
Dec. 27, 2026 – Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis
Dec. 18, 2027 – Rupp Arena, Lexington, Ky.
Dec. 16, 2028 – Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Bloomington
Filed to: Kentucky Wildcats