The Road to Houston begins for the University of Kentucky on November 12 at Rupp Arena against Eastern Tennessee State University. ETSU was a first-round victim of UK in last year’s NCAA tournament.

The 2010-11 UK Men's Basketball Schedule

From Eric Lindsey’s blog at the UK Athletics Site, we learn the following:

“UK will play 30 regular-season games this year against a pool of 29 teams below (includes all seven teams in the EA Sports Maui Invitational), facing teams that range as far east as Boston and as far west as Hawaii. The Cats have 15 home games, 10 away and five at neutral sites, including Maui and a marquee matchup with Notre Dame in Freedom Hall.

“Much like last year, Calipari made a concerted effort to play as many NCAA Tournament-type games as possible to prepare a freshman-laden UK team for the Big Dance. In molding an NCAA Tournament-ready squad – one worthy of a favorable seed – Calipari took direct aim at the RPI once again. He scheduled teams that are expected to compete for league titles and put UK in as many NCAA tourney scenarios as possible (hence, the emphasis on future neutral site games).

“What that translates to is a schedule that consists of some of the nation’s best teams from a possibility of 15 conferences. Fourteen of UK’s possible opponents this season (factoring in the Maui Invitational) finished in last year’s final RPI top 100. Only five teams resided 200 or above in last season’s RPI.

“And if the RPI isn’t your thing, consider this: 16 teams made postseason play of some sort, including nine that made the NCAA Tournament field. Two of those teams – Tennessee and Michigan State – advanced to the Elite Eight, with Michigan State going to the Final Four.”

UK released its schedule this afternoon, as did the Southeastern Conference.

-RTL-