Kentucky plays its first game in the 2025 Southeastern Tournament on Thursday at 9:30, and the Cats now know who their opponent will be.

UK will take on Oklahoma, who beat Georgia 81-75 on Wednesday night at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

This will be the second meeting of the season between the Cats and the Sooners. On February 26, Kentucky topped Oklahoma 83-82 at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman. In that game, former Sooner Otega Oweh returned to Norman and scored a career-high 28 points, including 18 of UK’s final 21 points in the game. For extra emphasis, he blocked a potential Oklahoma game winner at the buzzer.

Oklahoma got 20 points from Jalon Moore and 18 from Jeremiah Fears in the game.

The Cats made 18 of 24 at the line in the game, while Oklahoma made 12 of 17.

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope hopes that he has prepared his team for the postseason simply by doing the things that Kentucky teams do.

“The great thing about being at the University of Kentucky is that every game is a one and done. That’s what we do,” Pope said. “It’s the privilege of playing, coaching and being associated with this program that every single game feels like that. For us, there’s some comfort in that. You don’t know how to turn the temperature up more.”

Without question, Pope knows why his team is in Nashville this week and he knows how they can go about getting where they would like to go.

“Our goal is to come here and win,” Pope said. “But the way that we’re going to win is we’re going to come here and think about this possession. We’re going to be lost with our whole heart in this possession. Then when the next possession comes, we’re going to be lost in that possession. If we can do that consistently, we’re going to be successful.”

The Cats potential postseason run begins on Thursday night in Nashville.