Kentucky
Kentucky's History at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center
Your University of Kentucky Wildcats are off to a new city, Food City, for their next SEC road challenge. The eighth-ranked Tennessee Vols await in Knoxville, where recent history has been good for Kentucky in this spot.
Before the game tips off, we look back at all of the history between Kentucky and Tennessee in the Vols’ home arena. Only the games Kentucky won, though, because we don’t need any negativity heading into Tuesday night.
Kentucky is unbeaten at Food City
Technically, the Wildcats head to Food City Center with a 1-0 record. Last year, Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard scored 27 points each in Kentucky’s 85-81 win over the Vols in the Food City Center’s debut season. Unfortunately, it was the last win for that Kentucky team because it came in the regular season finale before a 0-2 run in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. Still, the record is the record, and Kentucky is unbeaten in Food City.
We’ll include all Thompson-Boling Arena games for the remainder of this exercise.
Best Performance: Jodie Meeks
Jodie Meeks had the most memorable individual performance at Thompson-Boling Arena. Meeks’ day is arguably the best performance in any arena by a Wildcat, considering his 54 points on January 13, 2009, are still the school’s record for points in a single game.
Meeks broke Dan Issel’s 39-year-old record by hitting 15 of 22 shots from the field, including a school-record 10 made 3-pointers on 15 tries. He set the new record at the free throw line, where he was 14 of 14 in UK’s 90-72 win over the Vols.
Second-Best Performance: Tayshaun Prince
Before Meeks, Tayshaun Prince had Kentucky’s best game in Thompson-Boling Arena. Prince dropped 30 on the Vols in 2001, hitting six 3-pointers with only one miss. He went 9-13 from the field and made all six free throws to set a new career high in scoring in UK’s 103-95 win. The headline on early-internet ESPN.com read, “Prince is King.”
We can’t leave Kenny Walker out of this discussion. Walker scored 32 points with nine rebounds in Knoxville’s old Stokely Center, which was replaced by Thompson-Boling and eventually demolished. Walker led UK to a win in 1986, snapping a run of 12 losses in 13 trips to the Stokely Center.
Win #1000
Another one from the old Stokely Center that’s worth mentioning before we keep our focus on Thompson-Boling (we’re making up the rules as we go). In January 1969, Kentucky became the first school to win 1,000 games by beating Tennessee in Knoxville. Dan Issel scored 21, Larry Steele 18, and Mike Pratt 17 in the 69-66 win over Ray Mears’ Vols. When Kentucky returned home, a celebration was held in Lexington before the following game, which included a cake with 1,000 candles.
Widest Margin of Victory
The scoreboard has never been uglier for the Vols than in 1996 when Rick Pitino’s eventual national champion Wildcats beat Tennessee by 40 in Thompson-Boling Arena. Eight players scored between 7 and 13 points in a balanced offensive attack, while the defense shut down the Vols in Knoxville. Tennessee shot 37% from the field with 20 turnovers in the loss.
Most Assists
Wayne Turner scored 17 points in Kentucky’s 1998 win in Knoxville. However, it was his 11 assists, a career-high, that turned heads in the 85-67 win. Led by Turner’s double-double and a game-high 20 points from Scott Padgett, who was ejected, Kentucky ran away with a fun January win in Thompson-Boling, a couple of months shy of the NCAA Tournament championship.
Best Chest Bump
If you’re listing the best chest bumps in Kentucky Basketball history, it’s a list of one: Tubby Smith and Brandon Stockton at Tennessee in 2006. Smith and his senior guard met at midcourt for a chest-to-chest celebration after the buzzer sounded on Kentucky’s two-point win. Shortly before the bump, Stockton made the defensive play of the game with a late steal.
Back-to-back upsets against a top-five team
Kentucky was a heavy underdog in its last two trips to Knoxville. In 2023, Tennessee was ranked fifth in the country and laying 11.5 points to Kentucky when Antonio Reeves (18 points) and CJ Fredrick (13 points) stepped up with Oscar Tshiebwe (15 points and 13 rebounds) to help the unranked Wildcats pull off the upset. Kentucky was without point guard Sahvir Wheeler due to injury, and future NBA guard Cason Wallace battled injury and foul trouble throughout the game. Even Adou Thiero filled in at point guard, yet Kentucky got the win.
Then, last season, Kentucky opened as a heavy underdog again, getting 9.5 points in the regular season finale in Knoxville. Reeves and Reed Sheppard broke in the new Food City Center with 27 points each in the upset of the fourth-ranked Vols. Kentucky hit 15 of 29 shots from 3, with Sheppard responsible for seven of the makes. Dalton Knecht scored 40 in the loss.
Other Kentucky memories in Thompson-Boling Arena
— Derrick Miller scored 23 points in Kentucky’s first-ever win in Thompson-Boling Arena.
— A young Scott Padgett had a career day at Tennessee in 1997, his sophomore season. Padgett scored a career-high 24 points for the defending champs in a 74-64 win in Knoxville.
— In 2004, Cliff Hawkins forced overtime by hitting a game-tying 3 with 16 seconds to go. Kentucky won in overtime, 69-68.
— A year after Hawkins’ heroics, Chuck Hayes‘ trip to a nearby hospital inspired Kentucky to another win in Thompson-Boling. Bobby Perry and Sheray Thomas stepped up when Hayes left with a broken nose halfway through UK’s 84-62 win.
— Jules Camara hit a couple of big shots late in Kentucky’s 2003 win against Tennessee. The senior forward scored six straight down the stretch, including the go-ahead jumper with under a minute left.
— Kentucky’s 2020-21 team didn’t have many highlights in its nine-win season. However, the worst year in school history still managed to find a win against 19th-ranked Tennessee in Knoxville, and by a big margin. Kentucky won, 70-55, led by Isaiah Jackson with 16.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Recent heavy rainfall has left soil across the state completely soaked, contributing to localized flooding in some areas.
When rain falls, some water soaks into the ground through a process called percolation.
Soil can only hold a limited amount of water. Once the small air spaces within the soil fill with water, the ground becomes saturated and additional rainfall has nowhere to go.
Soil type plays a role in how quickly water drains.
Much of Kentucky has clay-heavy soil, which is made up of very small, flat particles packed tightly together.
That composition makes it harder for water to move through. In clay soil, water may drain at a rate of only 0.02 to 0.17 inches per hour.
When rainfall comes down faster than the ground can absorb it and water cannot drain into a stream or storm drain quickly enough, it begins to build up.
That buildup is what leads to localized flooding.
Copyright 2026 WKYT. All rights reserved.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – Cyclosporiasis is a microscopic parasite that can contaminate food and water — is making people sick across several states, including Kentucky.
Dr. Patricia Tellez-Watson said, the illness is caused by Cyclospora cayetanensis and spreads when someone ingests contaminated food or water. “It is an intestinal infection caused by this water-borne, food-borne microscopic parasite,” she said.
Symptoms can include diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Tellez-Watson said, cases are often sporadic, but outbreaks can happen — especially during hot, wet months, when the parasite can survive in the environment long enough to become infectious.
Health experts recommend taking extra precautions with food and water. Washing hands and thoroughly rinsing produce before eating or cooking can reduce risk.
Watson also urged people to be cautious with fresh produce, particularly pre-packaged items, and to consider using bottled water.
Officials have confirmed cases in Bowling Green, though it’s unclear how many.
Copyright 2026 WBKO. All rights reserved.
What will Moeller’s Matt Ponatoski bring to Kentucky football, baseball?
Hear what Moeller senior had to say about signing to play football and baseball at the University of Kentucky.
Dual-sport star and Moeller alum Matt Ponatoski’s final decision still awaits, but signs are pointing towards Lexington, KY.
After committing to the University of Kentucky as both a quarterback and pitcher, Ponatoski was selected in the 18th round (No. 542 overall) of the 2026 MLB Draft by the hometown Cincinnati Reds. While Ponatoski was ranked No. 208 on the MLB’s draft board and expected to be selected higher, doubts around whether he intended to go pro this year caused his stock to fall.
Ponatoksi has until the MLB’s signing deadline on July 27 to make a final decision, but the Moeller product has seemingly signaled his intention to stick with the University of Kentucky. He enrolled at the University of Kentucky on Wednesday, July 15, per a Kentucky Sports Radio report, indicating he will join the Wildcats football team in the fall.
The Man of Moeller was just the third player in the history of the Gatorade Player of the Year award to win for two different sports in the same season. Doing so in his junior year, he joined Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver Randy Moss and National Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Joe Mauer.
For Wildcats football, Ponatoski would come in as a four-star quarterback prospect and helped give new head coach Will Stein a top-25 recruiting class in the nation. He threw just one interception in his senior season for the Moeller Crusaders, completing 66% of his passes for 2,395 yards and 28 touchdowns.
For Kentucky baseball, Ponatoski would join up with fellow freshman and former Louisville Trinity pitcher Grayson Willoughby, who won Kentucky Mr. Baseball and withdrew his name from the draft. Willoughby, a top-rated pitching prospect, felt MLB teams were attempting to low-ball him and thus chose to stick with the Wildcats. Ponatoski is fresh from a season leading Moeller to the state championship game, recording a 1.37 ERA on the year.
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