ABILENE, Texas — The ACU Wildcats are in the midst of a history-making season, and they learned Sunday that their first-round opponent in their first trip to the NCAA Tournament will be one of the historically great programs in college basketball in the Kentucky Wildcats.
The Blue-Blood Wildcats from Lexington, Kentucky, are the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region and will take on the #15 seed Wildcats from ACU on Thursday at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. ACU and Kentucky will tip off at 7:10 p.m. EST (6:10 p.m. CST) Thursday and the game will be televised nationally on CBS. Tickets can be purchased through the ACU Ticket Office beginning at noon Monday by calling (325) 674-CATS (2287).
ACU qualified for its first NCAA Tournament on Saturday night with a 77-60 win over New Orleans, capturing the Southland Conference championship and punching its ticket to the tournament. ACU is 27-6 on the season as it set program records for wins in the regular season (25) and in a conference season (14) and has tied the program record for overall wins in a season (27, originally set in 1979-80).
ACU is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament after making the jump to NCAA Division I affiliation in 2013-14, and is the fourth team in the last 20 seasons to make the tournament within its first two years of eligibility, joining North Dakota State (2009), Florida Gulf Coast (2013) and Northern Kentucky (2017).
While ACU has qualified for its first NCAA Tournament, the sport's greatest dynasty has now qualified for its record 58th tournament. Kentucky is college basketball's most successful NCAA Division I basketball program in both wins and all-time winning percentage. Kentucky has been to 17 Final Fours, won eight national championships and finished as the runner-up four other times.
Kentucky's finished the 2018-19 regular season winning six of seven to cap off a 15-3 Southeastern Conference slate and a share of second place in the league standings. UK's 27-6 overall record entering the NCAA Tournament includes winning streaks of 10, seven and four games, as well as two streaks of three.
"Why wouldn't we play Kentucky?" ACU head coach
Joe Golding said. "(Senior forward)
Jaren Lewis (native of Orlando, Florida) gets to go home to Florida to play, and we're matched up against the best college basketball program in the history of the game. They've got hall of fame head coaches — including the one there now (John Calipair) — and five-star recruits up and down their lineup.
"I'm sure they have no idea where Abilene, Texas, is, and I'm sure they're not worried about little ol' Abilene Christian," Golding said. "But we're going to use this opportunity to give the nation a window into this great university and this team and these players, and we'll get out on the floor and compete hard for 40 minutes and see what happens."
The winner of the game would advance to the Round of 32 where it will play Saturday against the winner of the game between No. 7 Wofford (29-4) and No. 10 Seton Hall (20-13).
