The college basketball staff at Louisville is accusing Kentucky of using a fake excuse to pull out of its annual manager game. Are the Wildcats ducking the Cardinals?
As of this writing, the two staff teams do not have anything on the schedule ahead of their school’s rivalry matchup on Saturday.
For those who are not familiar with the behind-the-scenes workings of college hoops, most of the staffers have a history in the sport. Many of them played basketball in high school. Some of them could’ve played on the Division-II or Division-III levels.
With that in mind, the staffers for both programs typically play a game of five-on-five on the night prior to the actual game between the two real teams or before shootaround. Manager basketball is very serious. There are stats, standings and everything!
Louisville’s managers reached out to Kentucky’s managers on Wednesday to make sure they are still on. They are not. The Wildcats told the Cardinals that they will play if it is only managers and grad assistants.
Is Kentucky ducking Louisville?
Even though the ‘Manager Games’ are technically open to “any member of the basketball staff” including “training staff, strength coaches, assistant coaches, graduate assistants, academic coordinators and equipment managers,” UK wants to face UL with specific roster guidelines. Former McDonald’s All-American, two-time Big East Tournament MVP, national champion and EuroCup Top Scorer Peyton Siva currently serves as the Cardinal’s Director of Player Development. Kentucky doesn’t think that’s fair.
The Wildcats told the Cardinals that their roster restriction stems from a lack of guys. Otherwise, they are not interested in playing a game they expect to lose because they are not at full strength.
Louisville thinks its in-state rival is just being soft.
To further their case, the Cardinals’ managers reached out to one of the Wildcats’ previous opponents. Lipscomb’s manager team played against Kentucky’s manager team in the middle of November. There were not any roster problems less than 30 days ago.
It sounds like the manager game will not take place in Lexington on Friday night prior to Saturday’s college basketball game at Rupp Arena. That’s a shame. Who is to blame? You can decide…