Kentucky Wildcats basketball just had its worse exhibition loss since playing the Soviet Union in 1991

Georgetown and the Soviet Union, just the connection you expected to come across.

But there's a link here, seriously. Kentucky played its final exhibition game Thursday night against the Hoyas and lost, 84-70.

They hadn't lost by that large a margin in an exhibition game since 1991, when the Soviet Union beat them 87-58 in January of that year, with the stat coming from UK reporter Ryan Black.

That's 34 years without an exhibition loss by 14 or more points. And the last one worse came in the middle of the season against a nation, not exactly the same as a preseason tune-up.

Reports from 1991 seem to indicate that it wasn't the full senior national team from the Soviets but rather a mixture that included some junior players. Still, likely quite a formidable team.

And that Kentucky team in 1990-91 wasn't bad. They went on to finish No. 9 in the final AP Poll. Rick Pitino was named the Sporting News Coach of the Year.

This year's team, under Mark Pope, remains a bit of a mystery. That's how things work in modern college basketball. Players come and players go quickly, and it's up to the staff and to the players themselves to figure out how to make it all work in a short period of time.

Kentucky had won its first exhibition game by 13 points over Purdue, but on this night, the Wildcats couldn't stop the Hoyas from scoring.

UK will open its regular season on Nov. 4 against Nicholls and then take on Valparaiso. Those two games will be key to get things right in, because looming on Nov. 11 is Louisville. The Wildcats, as always, will want to take that rivalry clash for themselves.

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