Hubert Davis open to future home-and-home with Kentucky

Dating back to 1942, Kentucky and North Carolina have played each other 42 times. They’ll add another chapter to their rivalry on Saturday when they square off in the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta.

From 2000-11, though, the Tar Heels and Wildcats played a home-and-home series, and they did one more time in 2013 and 2014. Since then, the two programs have played five times — four times in the CBS Sports Classic and once in the 2017 Elite Eight.

If there was an opportunity to renew that home-and-home, though, UNC coach Hubert Davis said he’d be in favor of doing so.

“Yeah. I would,” Davis said ahead of Saturday’s matchup. “I would, yes.”

North Carolina holds the 25-17 lead in the all-time series, but Kentucky has won three of the last five meetings. The latest came in 2021 CBS Sports Classic when the Wildcats flew past the Tar Heels 98-69 in Davis’ first year as head coach.

This year, both teams are off to strong starts to the season with identical 7-2 records. North Carolina is coming off a loss to UConn earlier this week after three straight victories, including one over No. 10 Tennessee. Kentucky, meanwhile, defeated Penn as the Wildcats bounced back from a loss to UNC Wilmington. UK also has a huge upset victory over Miami on its resume during the ACC-SEC Challenge.

Hubert Davis: Kentucky vs. North Carolina should be ‘fun’

The metrics say Saturday’s game will be a good matchup. North Carolina checked in at No. 17 in the KenPom rankings as of Friday night while Kentucky wasn’t far behind at No. 22. Both offenses will be on full display, as well, as both teams rank in the top 15 of KenPom’s offensive efficiency — UNC at No. 7 and UK at No. 13.

That creates an exciting matchup at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, and Davis said it should make for quite an environment.

“It’s fun,” Davis said. “It’s great being able to compete against the better teams in the country. Any time you get a chance to play against Kentucky and Coach [John] Calipari, it’s something to enjoy, it’s something to take advantage of and have fun competing.

“To be able to do it on Saturday in Atlanta, it’ll be packed and the atmosphere will be live, and that’s exactly what you want as a player and as a competitor. We’re really excited about the challenge on Saturday afternoon.”

Kentucky vs. North Carolina is set to tip off Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET on CBS.