UK and Cards will play Dec. 28

Mark Dec. 28 as the day where anyone who is a college basketball fan will be paying attention to the Bluegrass.

Sources have confirmed that’s the date for the Kentucky-Louisville game in Rupp Arena. Kentucky won the national championship in 2012 and Louisville won this year.

With the return of guard Russ Smith and a talented recruiting class, Louisville should go into the season as a top five team. With the return of Alex Poythress, Willie-Cauley Stein and Kyle Wiltjer to go with six McDonald’s All-Americans and two-in state recruits, Kentucky seems set to go into the season ranked No. 1 despite playing in the NIT and losing to Robert Morris to end last season.

The Dec. 28 game will be part of a powerhouse non-conference schedule for UK — just based on what is known already.

Kentucky will play Michigan State Nov. 12 in Chicago in the Champions Classic. Odds are Michigan State will enter the season ranked in the top five.

Kentucky will return to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., to face the Providence Friars on Dec. 1. Kentucky opened last season with a win over Maryland in Brooklyn.

The Wildcats will go to Cowboys Stadium in Dallas to play Baylor, which beat UK in Rupp Arena last year, on either Dec. 7 or Dec. 8. “Originally the game December 7, but we have our final regular season football game that date versus Texas. Last I heard, we're working on moving football to a Thursday or Friday night or moving basketball to Sunday the 8th.”

Kentucky will play at North Carolina, a NCAA team last year and a finalist for Andrew Wiggins, in December. It would seem logical for that game to be Dec. 14 or 21 on national TV. Kentucky also has a game in Birmingham against Samford but Samford athletics director Martin Newton says a date has not been finalized.

ESPN’s Andy Katz, UK coach John Calipari’s go-to guy with information, has confirmed that Boise State, another NCAA participant last season, will play at Rupp Arena. Boise State athletics director Mark Coyle worked under Mitch Barnhart at Kentucky and worked with the basketball program. The Broncos lose only one senior off the NCAA team and return their top six scorers, making them a potential preseason top 25 team.

And just in case you were wondering, Calipari also confirmed to Katz that UK’s Big Blue Madness would be Oct. 18 even if the NCAA does allow teams to start practicing earlier next season.