Kentucky basketball Blue-White Game is headed to Memorial Coliseum

how-will-return-memorial-coliseum-affect-kentucky-wbb — Photo by UK Athletics

This year’s Blue-White Game is going to look a little bit different than in years past. The event is headed to Memorial Coliseum.

UK announced on Friday morning that the preseason intrasquad scrimmages for Kentucky men’s and women’s basketball will take place inside the newly renovated Memorial on Friday, Oct. 18. Additionally, all proceeds from the event will benefit Club Blue, one of the school’s primary NIL partners.

This scrimmage is being labeled as a “Preseason Event”, with UK’s social media post indicating that there will be more going on than just the scrimmages. Regardless, this will be our first true look at 5-on-5 action for both Mark Pope and Kenny Brooks‘ squads as they enter year one as head coaches of their respective teams.

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Big Blue Madness is scheduled for the week prior on Friday, October 11 inside Rupp Arena.

Save the Date, #BBN 🗓️

The BlueWhite Preseason Event will feature @KentuckyMBB and @KentuckyWBB inside Historic Memorial Coliseum on
Friday, Oct. 18❕

Proceeds from this event will benefit Club Blue 😸 pic.twitter.com/rOxukayc7Z
— Kentucky Athletics (@UKAthletics) August 16, 2024

After undergoing an $82 million renovation over the last year-plus, Memorial is expected to reopen in late August, just in time for the start of the fall sports season. Later this month, Kentucky Volleyball will be the first team to actually play inside the upgraded gym, which features a new ceiling, new flooring, new seating, a new court, a courtside club area, new restrooms, new concession stands, new lighting, and a new scoreboard. The new seating capacity has been cut down from 10,000 people to roughly 6,500.

Memorial will be the host site moving forward for Kentucky Women’s Basketball, Volleyball, Gymnastics, and STUNT. The WBB team typically plays its Blue-White Game in Memorial. But for the first time since the Billy Gillispie era in 2006, the men’s team will play in the same building. It had been held at Rupp (along a couple of locations outside of Lexington the previous two years) since the 2008-09 season.