Texas Basketball: 3 early storylines for Big 12/SEC Challenge vs. Kentucky

What early storylines are there to follow between Texas basketball and Kentucky after the Big 12/SEC Challenge slate was announced this week?

Texas basketball really did not get too lucky of a draw, in terms of potentially landing a very winnable game, for the annual Big 12/SEC Challenge for this coming college hoops season. Head coach Shaka Smart and his Texas men’s hoops program drew head coach John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats in the Big 12/SEC Challenge for this season’s matchup.

Last season, the Longhorns got to face the LSU Tigers at home at the Frank Erwin Center in an eventual tough 69-67 loss. That loss to LSU in the Big 12/SEC Challenge last season came back on Jan. 25, 2020. This time around in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, Texas is set to travel to Lexington to face Kentucky at historic Rupp Arena on Jan. 30, 2021.

Some of the other significant matchups in the Big 12/SEC Challenge for the 2020-21 season includes Texas Tech-LSU, Kansas-Tennessee, Florida-West Virginia, and Auburn-Baylor. The team out of the Big 12 that will get a crack at the Longhorns in-state rival Texas A&M Aggies is the Kansas State Wildcats.

And the rival Oklahoma Sooners will be facing the Alabama Crimson Tide in this series for the 2020-21 season.

It was also announced this week that the regular season opener for the Longhorns on the hardwood this season would be coming against UT-Rio Grande Valley at the Erwin Center on Nov. 25. The schedule is starting to come together for Texas men’s hoops for the 2020-21 season, which is a good sign.

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But there’s not going to be many bigger games on the schedule for the 2020-21 regular season for Smart and his Longhorns than Kentucky in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Here’s a look at three early looming storylines for the Texas-Kentucky matchup set for Jan. 30, 2021.