Kentucky Wildcat Basketball: Big Blue Madness Preview

Big Blue Madness starts on Friday but before the basketball festivities begin, the Kentucky Volleyball team will be playing at Rupp Arena at 5 PM.

Oct. 14, 2011; Lexington, KY USA; A general view of Rupp Arena before the Kentucky Wildcats big blue Madness first practice of the year. Image Credit: Mark Zerof-US PRESSWIRE

With Big Blue Madness starting at 7 PM, Friday night is going to be fun for everyone. The Volleyball team has a chance to set a new attendance record when they play their first-ever match inside Rupp Arena. The CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska, currently holds the record with 17,340. Rupp Arena can hold 24,000 fans and will be the largest venue that they have ever played in. While fans support the Wildcat basketball teams, come early and root for the volleyball team as well.

CoachCal.com has a list of networks where you can watch Big Blue Madness online.

In 2010, Enes Kanter was introduced and not allowed to play in the scrimmage during Big Blue Madness. There are questions that still surround Nerlens Noel and Coach John Calipari addressed those during his press conference this afternoon.

Noel has yet to be cleared by the NCAA, but Calipari said that Noel will practice “and if we played tomorrow, he would play.”

It’s possible that Calipari could play Kyle Wiltjer, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Nerlens Noel all at the same time but would have to play zone in doing so.

As far as programming goes, while the UK IMG Sports Network starts things off at 7 PM, the main events will not start until closer to 7:30 PM and will last for nearly 2 hours after that. The women’s basketball team is going to be up first before the men’s basketball festivities get underway later on. Look for women’s basketball coach Matthew Mitchell to do something interesting when he is first introduced. Last year, he did a Michael Jackson impression. The year before, fans saw him do the dougie dance.

Several basketball recruits will be on hand including 2013 commits Derek Willis, Andrew Harrison, and Aaron Harrison. Marcus Lee, a 2013 recruit, will be on hand. Kentucky is one of 2 schools he is down to. Those in the 2014 recruiting class on hand include Cliff Alexander and JaQuan Lyle.