Kentucky Basketball vs. James Madison preview, viewing info, what to watch for, odds, and predictions

Kentucky Basketball is 1-0 and looks to move to 2-0 with a win on Friday against the James Madison Dukes.

The Dukes are the No. 163 team in America and were projected to finish second in the Sun Belt Conference this season. Kentucky struggled early against Manhattan, before blowing the game open with a huge run. The Cats will look to start hot and stay hot against James Madison on Friday.

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Kentucky finished 3-0 in the preseason exhibition season, beating Little Rock, Texas Tech, and UCF.

Now, with one game under its belt and the season underway, Kentucky will look to improve each and every game, with James Madison next on deck. The following Tuesday is the game Big Blue Nation has been looking forward to for quite some time, with Kansas facing off against Kentucky on November 10 in Chicago, but business needs to be handled first.

James Madison is coming off a year in which they went 18-15 and finished eighth in the Sun Belt in year two under head coach Preston Spradlin. That name may be a familiar one for those from the bluegrass, with Spradlin being a Kentuckian himself.

From Pikeville, Kentucky, Spradlin has been around the game his entire life. He played college ball at Alice Lloyd College in Knott County, Kentucky, from 2005-2009, then moved into coaching, starting in Lexington as a graduate assistant for the Wildcats’ men’s team from 2009-2011.

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Spradlin then became the director of basketball operations for Kentucky from 2011-2014. Following his few years at Kentucky, he found his way back to the sideline, heading to Morehead State. Spradlin was an assistant for the Eagles from 2014-2016, then was named head coach in 2016 and remained in that role until 2024, when he took the head coaching job at James Madison after Mark Byington left for Vanderbilt.

Another layer to this matchup is that Kentucky forward Justin McBride played for Spradlin last year before entering the transfer portal and landing at Kentucky. In his time there, McBride averaged 15.3…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/kentucky-basketball-vs-james-madison-215508465.html

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Publish date : 2026-11-05 21:55:00

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