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Got to give John Calipari credit for someone in Lexington finally recognizing that University of Kentucky basketball is not quite the attraction in Louisville that Wildcat fans delude themselves into thinking it is.
Mark Story, of the Lexington Herald-Leader with the numbers:
Kentucky hasn’t sold out a (non-U of L) game in Freedom Hall since 2004-’05. Not coincidentally, that was the last time UK faced Indiana in Louisville back when that series was being played on neutral courts with tickets split 50-50 between the schools.
Since that game, the only (non-U of L) contest that UK has played in Freedom Hall that drew more than 15,500 fans came in 2010-11, a matchup with Notre Dame that attracted 17,404.
Otherwise, the UK “home games” in Louisville since 2005-’06 have been against: Iona, Chattanooga, UAB, Appalachian State, North Carolina Asheville and, this past season, Arkansas-Little Rock.
Those games have drawn: 13,794; 11,641; 14,241; 10,173; 15,368; and 14.747.
Those numbers aren’t exactly up to the “gold standard of college basketball.”
Somewhere in the bowels of the old Cardinal Stadium at the Fairgrounds, there’s a brand new blue-lined UK basketball floor hidden away, collecting dust. Meanwhile, many old University of Louisville championship banners are still hanging high in Freedom Hall.
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