Kentucky, Transylvania To Renew Hoops Series 100 Years Later

Kentucky and Transylvania will play a pre-season men's basketball exhibition game on Nov. 2, Transy Coach Brian Lane confirmed Wednesday. The two Lexington-based schools have not met in basketball since 1911. The series record stands at 7-7.

Transy, a Division III school, plans to make public the pre-conference portion of its 2011-12 schedule soon, Lane said. Besides the game at UK, the schedule will include a holiday tournament in Las Vegas on Dec. 27-30.

"I know our guys will be very excited," Lane said of the exhibition against UK. "It'll be something for them to remember for a very, very long time."

Lane waited until the end of this past season to tell his players that Transy would play at UK going into the next season. The Transy coach said Division III teams are not allowed to practice or conduct team activities in the off season. So he hoped the anticipation of playing UK would motivate his players to work hard on their own this off season.

"I kind of wanted to leave that carrot out there for them," he said.

Even before the question could be asked, Lane shied from the notion of an upset victory.

"No shock-the-world moment," he said. Transy hopes to use the game as preparation for its season and give UK a disciplined opponent.

The programs have talked about making the most of the novelty of two schools in such close proximity playing a game, Lane said. There has been talk of the teams sharing a pre-game meal and/or walking from their campuses to Rupp Arena.

Of walking to Rupp Arena, Lane quipped, "I'm excited because it's downhill for us."