Western Kentucky has a rare opportunity Tuesday in Lexington.

The Hilltoppers will take on No. 8-ranked Kentucky for just the eighth time in program history and first time since 2021. The game is the final installment of a three-game multi-team event (MTE), the BBN Invitational, hosted by the Wildcats. Tuesday’s 5:30 p.m. CT game at Rupp Arena will be televised on ESPNU.

The game will be the first against a top-25 team in the regular season for the Tops since Jan. 28, 2023, when WKU dropped a 70-63 decision to No. 21 Florida Atlantic – then a member of Conference USA – in Boca Raton, Florida.

WKU (3-2) has won three straight games, all at home, and beat Lipscomb (66-61) and Jackson State (79-62) in the first two games of the BBN Invitational. Kentucky (5-0) also handily beat both those opponents, winning by an average of 39 points.

The Hilltoppers are 0-1 in road games this season, dropping a 74-72 decision to Western Athletic Conference preseason favorite Grand Canyon. That was the biggest crowd WKU has played in front of this season – 7,332 in attendance. Kentucky’s smallest crowd in four home games is 19,314 for the Lipscomb game on Nov. 19.

“They’re very well-coached and it seems like there’s a lot of positive energy in Lexington towards what they’re doing, so I would anticipate that we walk into a very challenging environment against an elite-level team,” WKU coach Hank Plona said. “Obviously we’ve been on the road once before in a different type of challenging environment. The point (is) preparing ourselves for as many difficult games as possible. This obviously will be a challenging road game, but I know our guys are looking forward to the challenge. It’s certainly a game that we’re playing because our players wanted to play it and they still want to play it.”

Under first-year head coach Mark Pope, who arrived in Lexington after a successful run as BYU’s head coach to replace John Calipari, the Wildcats enter Tuesday’s matchup as the nation’s fourth-best scoring offense (97 points per game). The Wildcats are tied for the nation’s lead at 21.8 assists per game and are No. 12 in the country in 3-point field goal percentage (42.9%) – including the nation’s individual leader in that category, senior guard Koby Brea (20-of-27, 74.1%).

Kentucky also ranks in the top-20 nationally in shooting percentage (52.1%, No. 13 in NCAA).

“It looks to me like they’re shooting the ball at a very high level with a lot of confidence,” Plona said. “They have four, sometimes five guys on the floor that can make shots. And obviously they have been a very efficient offensive basketball team.”

Junior guard Otega Oweh is one of four Wildcats averaging double-digit scoring with a team high 16.2 points per game, joining Brea (16.0 ppg) and graduate senior guards Jaxson Robinson (11.4 ppg) and Lamont Butler (11.2 ppg). Graduate senior center Amari Williams, a 7-footer, is averaging nearly a double-double with 9.6 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. Graduate senior forward Andrew Carr isn’t far off with 9.4 points per outing.

WKU’s biggest edge is experience – the Tops rank in the top 2 (along with Louisville) among NCAA Division I programs in terms of the oldest rosters this season. The Hilltoppers’ regular rotation features the core of last year’s Conference USA Tournament championship team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament – senior point guard Don McHenry (team-high 17.2 points per game), senior forward Babacar Faye (15.0 ppg, 7.8 rpg), graduate senior guard Khristian Lander (12.0 ppg), graduate senior forward Tyrone Marshall Jr. (7.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg) and senior guard Enoch Kalambay (7.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg), plus now healthy graduate senior guard Jalen Jackson.

Plona added experienced transfers in graduate senior guard Braxton Bayless, redshirt senior forward/center Blaise Keita and and senior forward/center Leeroy Odiahi. And true freshman guard Julius Thedford, pressed into extra minutes with sophomore guard Teagan Moore sitting out as a medical redshirt this season, has been a real offensive boost in scoring 11.4 points per game.

WKU will be looking for its first win against Kentucky since Nov. 15, 2001, when the Hilltoppers stunned the No. 4 Wildcats 64-52 at Rupp in the NABC Classic. Kentucky leads the all-time series 5-2 and won the last meeting 95-60 in on Dec. 21, 2021, in Lexington.

Plona will be making his first visit to Rupp Arena and said his players are excited for the chance to face the Wildcats.

“This team has been in some big games,” Plona said. “We’ve played in the NCAA Tournament, we played in front of 20,000 people. We have a lot of players that have played in big games. The thing that I love about our group and we have since the beginning is they always seem to answer the bell and they kind of live for these type of games.”