Woodson explains why there’s 1 Assembly Hall game in IU-UK series
BLOOMINGTON – Mike Woodson acknowledges the unbalanced scheduling format of IU’s recently-announced series with Kentucky was necessary to get the deal signed. But it isn’t necessarily the norm Woodson sees longterm.
Hammered out first between Woodson and Kentucky coach John Calipari — two longtime friends — and then their respective athletic directors, the Hoosiers and Wildcats will meet annually starting in the 2025-26 season and running for four years.
It will renew one of college basketball’s storied rivalries, which had been on ice (beyond unplanned postseason meetings) since December 2011.
If fans took any issue with the renewal of their basketball border rivalry, it was with the scheduling format. Kentucky will act as host for the 2025 and 2027 games, staging them at Rupp Arena in Lexington, while IU will host its first game in the cycle, in 2026, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, before the Wildcats come to Bloomington in 2028.
Some wondered whether the Hoosiers should have had to give up a campus date Kentucky did not. Woodson wasn’t interested in second-guessing the decision.
In fact, he said, it’s possible a more equitable campus rotation might wind up in the series’ future moving forward.
“That was the only way I could get it done,” Woodson told assembled reports at Big Ten media days Tuesday. “We’ll move forward probably after that last year, it being in Bloomington, to having it be in Rupp-BloomingtonRupp-Bloomington, and just have it that way.”
Wherever the Hoosiers face Kentucky, Woodson will be happy to have them back on the schedule.
“It was something that had to happen,” he said. “We stayed in each other’s ears until we got our ADs together and finally got it done.”
The announcement arrived as welcome news for a fan base happy to see Woodson keeping his word to schedule Indiana against top-line opponents again. Just in his first 2 years leading his alma mater, Woodson has now faced Kansas and Arizona, added Kentucky back to his future schedules and placed the program in the prestigious Thanksgiving-week Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, for the first time in the history of that event.
Since his introductory news conference in early spring 2021, Woodson has been adamant these are the kinds of games a program of IU’s stature should seek out, for the challenge of competing against the best programs in the country and because Indiana belongs on those stages as well.
“It’s good,” he said, “for basketball.” Des Moines Register reporter Tyler Tachman contributed to this story.
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.