WKU Basketball: Louisville Series to Resume in 2019–20
On Friday afternoon, Chad Bishop from WBKO reported that WKU will resume its series with in-state rival Louisville starting during the 2019–2020 season. The series was put on a two year hold after the 2015–16 season.
The series will follow the same format as the previous games that were played from 2008 to 2016 with alternating games in the KFC Yum! Center (Louisville), Bridgestone Arena (Nashville), KFC Yum Center and E.A. Diddle Arena.
The main reason the series stopped in the first place was the controversial contest that occurred on December 19, 2014 in Diddle Arena. The game was physical and overtly chippy. During a loose ball on the floor, WKU’s Brandon Price and Louisville’s Montrezl Harrell battle for the ball turned into a scuffle that resulted in Harrell being ejected before Louisville prevailed in a 76–67 win.
The Louisville response (mainly from their fans) was to blame WKU for the incident and say that WKU was dirty. They wanted to punish WKU for their star player ejected and questioned why they were playing the game in the first place. Without getting too into the weeds on this one (UofL fans were wrong), the series wasn’t renewed despite seven straight games without incident before that game. Both teams played one last time in Louisville the next season without incident.
With Rick Stansbury taking over for Ray Harper, UofL’s animus towards WKU basketball must have subsided. To UofL’s credit they now have current series scheduled against WKU in football (2018–2020), basketball and baseball.
The basketball game is a good thing for two historically strong programs, with Louisville holding a razor thin 40–39 series lead all-time. For WKU, Louisville is a respect-building measuring stick to show how close they are to the Power 5 teams in state (as opposed to the Murray’s and EKU’s of the world).
Louisville benefits as well by playing a tough in-state game against a team they should theoretically beat. With attendance getting harder and harder to draw in all major sports, a game against WKU should draw considerably better than St. Francis, Southern Illinois or Albany. The game will also help both sides schedule strength as UofL is annually a Top 10 program while WKU should be a top 50–100 program year in and year out moving forward with Stansbury.
The next five years will be fun to watch in Louisville, Nashville and Bowling Green. Maybe one day, UK will realize that a game against WKU isn’t a lose-lose proposition.
What do you think about the series between WKU & Louisville? How many games can WKU realistically expect to win? Let us know in a comment below, via twitter at @TheTowelRackWKU or on our Facebook page.
