It’s that time of the year that the Kentucky faithful fill Rupp Arena to get a glimpse of their Men’s and Women’s basketball teams. The fans got a preview of the Men’s back in July when the team traveled to Canada to play international teams. Tonight, however, they get to see them in person as the team takes the Rupp Arena floor for the first time.
The Women’s basketball team were the first to take the floor. Looking to improve on their 9-20 record of the 22-23 season Coach Kyra Elzy stated earlier in the week that the team is looking forward and not thinking about last season. This year marks the 50thyear of the Kentucky Women’s Basketball program. After the player introductions, the former coaches were introduced with a passing of a torch. The first event of the night was the Women’s three-point competition, which was won by Maddie Scherr and was followed by the Women’s scrimmage, won easily by the White team.
The men’s portion of Big Blue Madness started with player introductions and a special guest, Demarcus Cousins, introduced Coach Calipari. Next, the Men’s three-point competition between Reed Sheppard, DJ Wagner, Tre Mitchell, Antonio Reeves and Justin Edwards. The Final round was Sheppard vs. Reeves and, after a slow start, was won by Reeves for the second year in a row. The slam dunk competition was next with three competitors Joey Hart, Jordan Burke, and Justin Edwards. At the end the crowd decided that Joey Hart was the winner. Big Blue Madness closed with the Men’s scrimmage, but due to technical difficulties the winner wasn’t decided, however, Antonio Reeves took home the MVP.
It was an exciting opening to the 2023-24 basketball season. Even though there is not a way to evaluate the players on how the perform at the BBM it is always fun to get to know the players better and see them take the court for the first time. The Men’s basketball team will head to Northern Kentucky on October 21stfor the annual Blue/White game to help raise money for the flood victims.
