Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus No. 9-Seed Cincinnati (1st Round) on March 10, 2026 , Loss , 66, to, 73
Final Score
Men's Basketball
66
vs No. 9-Seed Cincinnati (1st Round)
73
The University of Utah Athletics
Kentucky, Utah Renew Men's Basketball Rivalry
11/19/1999 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 19, 1999
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The casts are different, but the show never seems to end when Kentucky and Utah get together.
Forget the Wildcats have knocked the Utes out of the NCAA Tournament four times in the 1990s. This latest chapter has Utah coach Rick Majerus angered over his team having to travel to Rupp Arena for Friday's Preseason NIT second-round game.
Majerus claims when he committed his team to play in the 16-team tournament, he was promised the Utes would play at home in the first and second rounds. It appears he must have misunderstood.
"I'm upset about it," he said Thursday. "It was driven by TV. ESPN doesn't want us on TV, or doesn't want us back in New York.
Back on the court, the 14th-ranked Wildcats and No. 16 Utah meet for the right to move on to next week's semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Kentucky qualified for Friday's game by defeating Pennsylvania, 67-50 in the first round on Wednesday. Utah moved on by wiping out Arkansas State, 76-43.
The Utes knocked the Indians out of last year's NCAA Tournament, 80-58 in the first round.
Friday's game is a rematch of the 1998 national championship game, won 78-69 by Kentucky. Only senior center Jamaal Magloire and junior guard Saul Smith remain from that Kentucky team. On Utah's end, Michael Doleac and Andre Miller are gone, but so is 6-foot-10 senior forward Hanno Mottola, albeit for a much more serious reason than graduation.
Mottola, who tore a ligament in his left knee during a rare exhibition loss last week, will not be back until around Christmas.
Missing his biggest force down low, Majerus cautions that despite his team's easy first-round victory, the Utes are a long way from being considered a national power.
"The score was not indicative of how good we are," Majerus said. "We've got so much work to do, but it's a nice win and it was nice to see good enthusiasm and good effort."
Nate Althoff and Jeff Johnsen, who added 14 and 10 points, respectively, in the opening-round win, will continue to be called upon in Mottola's absence.
While Utah scrambles to make up for the loss of its main weapon, Kentucky unveiled a new force against Penn in freshman Marvin Stone, rated by coach Tubby Smith as one of the most promising big men he's ever coached.
The 6-foot-10 forward-center from Huntsville, Ala., did nothing to dampen expectations in the season opener, scoring 12 points, grabbing six rebounds and and handing out three assists.
Stone's effort aside, Smith said overall his team will have to be more aggressive against Utah, especially on the offensive glass. Penn grabbed 13 offensive rebounds, to Kentucky's 11.
"Against Utah, we'll have to play a much better game, especially in some of the boxing out and rebounding, because they're very aggressive, very strong on the boards," he said. "I didn't see any of the gang rebounding (against Penn) that we're going to need against a Utah team."
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