< Previous10 @KentuckyMBB From Press Row The NCAA men’s basketball selection committee has chosen Kentucky as the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Region for the 2025 NCAA Tournament, extending the program’s national record with a 62nd selection to the big dance. The Cats will open play on Friday, when they will face Troy in Milwaukee. The game will tip off at 7:10 p.m. ET on CBS. This is the fifth time that Kentucky has earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the second consecutive year. The team is 6-4 in the tournament as a No. 3 seed, in- cluding 2-1 in the first round. The third-seeded Cats reached the Elite Eight in the 1999 NCAA Tournament with wins over New Mexico State, Kansas and Miami (OH) before falling to Michigan State. UK heads into March Madness with a 22- 11 overall record in the program’s first season under head coach Mark Pope. For Pope, the NCAA bid is the third of his coaching career, having twice competed in the tournament while at the helm at BYU, including as a No. 6 seed last year. The Wildcats finished sixth in the loaded Southeastern Conference, which earned a re- cord 14 bids to the NCAA Tournament. Ken- tucky is coming off a quarterfinal appearance in the SEC Tournament this past week, where UK topped Oklahoma before falling to Ala- bama. For the first time ever, Kentucky earned two victories over No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament this season, defeating both Duke and Florida. UK racked up 11 Quad 1 wins and earned eight victories over Associated Press Top 15 opponents, tying an NCAA re- cord for the most such wins. In addition to the most appearances, Kentucky holds the NCAA Tournament re- cord for most games played (185), while it ranks second all-time in NCAA Tournament wins with 130. The Cats own a 130-55 all- time record in NCAA action, winning eight NCAA championships and reaching 17 Fi- nal Fours. Kentucky is 49-12 in NCAA Tournament openers and has won 26 of its last 29 open- ing-round games. Kentucky is set to play Troy for the sec- ond time in program history. UK owns a 1-0 record in the series all-time, the lone meet- ing coming in 2018. Troy is 23-10 on the year and won the Sun Belt Tournament by defeating Arkansas State in the final. Troy is averaging 73.9 points per game this season while allowing opponents to score 65.4 points per game. The Trojans are shooting 43.8 percent from the field and 29.9 percent from 3 on the season. Troy has a +5.6 rebounding margin and +0.2 turn- over margin. Senior guard Tayton Conerway leads the team this season averaging 14.3 points per game while dishing out 158 as- sists. Thomas Dowd paces the team with 6.8 rebounds per game. If Kentucky defeats Troy, the Wildcats play Sunday against the winner of No. 6 seed Il- linois (21-12) and the play-in game between Texas (19-15) and Xavier (21-11). UK leads the all-time series with Illinois 11-4 and is 4-0 against the Illini in the NCAA Tourna- ment. The Wildcats are 2-1 all-time against Texas, including 0-1 this season, and 37-2 vs. Xavier. UK has not faced the Longhorns or the Musketeers in NCAA Tournament action. Ticket information Public tickets for the first and second round games in Milwaukee can be pur- chased by visiting NCAA.com/MBBTickets. Fans will find complete ticket information for all NCAA sites, including information on the NCAA Ticket Exchange (NCAA.com/Ex- change), the official secondary marketplace for authentic NCAA Tournament tickets. For the latest on the Kentucky men’s bas- ketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on X/ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and on the web at UKAthletics.com.$ 600+ IN SAVINGS EVERY WEEK WITH DIGITAL COUPONS Scan here to start saving. Official Grocer of UK Athletics.Thank You to Our CORNERSTONE PARTNERSNE14 @KentuckyMBB Fiserv Forum F iserv Forum stylized as fiserv.forum is a multi-purpose arena located in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the home of the Milwau- kee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Mar- quette Golden Eagles men's basketball team of Marquette University. Construction began in 2016, with the arena officially opening its doors in 2018.[13][10] Taxpayers contributed $250 million towards the total construction cost of $524 million.[14][15] The city of Mil- waukee sold the land in downtown Milwaukee for $1 to the team. Fiserv Forum holds 17,500 people and has fewer luxury suites, but more club seating than the BMO Harris Bradley Center. The arena seats 17,385 for basketball games, 15,178 for ice hockey and indoor football, and up to 18,000 for concerts. It also features a layout and equipment for an NHL/NCAA-regu- lation ice hockey rink and ice shows such as Disney on Ice, thus it still will be able to host the NCAA Frozen Four as the BMO Harris Bradley Center did in the past in 1993, 1997 and 2006. However, the American Hockey League's Milwaukee Admirals returned to the UW–Milwaukee Panther Arena in the 2016–17 season as they were not approached to play games in the arena. The Bucks are contrac- tually bound not to recruit current tenants of the Panther Arena to move their events to the Fiserv Forum. At its opening, Fiserv Forum had the largest center-hung score- board in the NBA.LEARN MORE AT GO.UKY.EDU/UKINVESTS OR BY SCANNING THE QR CODE. go.uky.edu/ukinvests | ukinvests@uky.edu The University of Kentucky is boldly committed to transforming our students' lives – both in and out of the classroom. In August 2023, we proudly introduced UK Invests – a first-of-its-kind initiative nationally and a holistic wellness program anchored by financial education. Through UK Invests, we are empowering and encouraging students to understand the importance of investing in themselves and their future. Ultimately, through this initiative, every student on campus can receive a personal investment account that will be used to incentivize and reward them for developing healthy habits – from wellness to career skill building to financial literacy. During the 2023-2024 academic year, more than 7,500 students opened a brokerage account through UK Invests. Collectively, those students participating in the program have earned more than $920,000. This program sets UK apart from other colleges and universities by teaching real-world situations to demonstrate the benefits of saving and investing early. “We can say we’re going to put students first, but by stepping forward in this way, we do put students first,” UK President Capiluoto said. “We believe in them, their future and what it can mean for Kentucky.” *Fidelity Bloom® is a mobile app designed to help with student’s saving, spending and investing behaviors through the Save and Spend accounts, which are brokerage accounts covered by SIPC. They are not bank accounts and therefore are not covered by FDIC insurance. Account made available via the app may be subject to fee. Brokerage account products and services offered by Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC. Member NYSE, SIPC. 900 Salem Street, Smithfield, RI 02917. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Compliance eReview number: 1102478.1.0 A WILDLY POWERFUL COMMITMENT “It means a lot that UK takes the time to educate students on how to manage money because it shows that they don’t just care about their students’ success in the classroom.” Langston Jackson, Class of 2023 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 16 @KentuckyMBB M ilwaukee is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Milwaukee County. With a popu- lation of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Mil- waukee is the 31st-most populous city in the United States and the fifth-most populous city in the Midwest. It is the central city of the Milwaukee metropolitan area, the 40th- most populous metro area in the U.S. with 1.57 million residents. Milwaukee is an ethnically and cultur- ally diverse city.However, it continues to be one of the most racially segregated cit- ies, largely as a result of early-20th-centu- ry redlining. Its history was heavily influ- enced by German immigrants in the 19th century, and it continues to be a center for German-American culture, specifically be- coming well known for its brewing indus- try. In recent years, Milwaukee has under- gone several development projects. Major additions to the city since the turn of the 21st century include the Wisconsin Center, American Family Field, The Hop streetcar system, an expansion to the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Bradley Symphony Center, and Discovery World, as well as major renovations to the UW–Milwaukee Panther Arena. Fiserv Fo- rum opened in late 2018, and hosts sporting events and concerts. Milwaukee is rated as a "Sufficiency" city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, with a regional GDP of over $102 billion in 2020. Since 1968, Mil- waukee has been home to Summerfest, a large music festival. Milwaukee is home to the Fortune 500 companies of Northwestern Mutual, Fiserv, WEC Energy Group, Rock- well Automation, and Harley-Davidson.[28] It is also home to several colleges, including Marquette University, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee School of Engi- neering, and University of Wisconsin–Mil- waukee. The city is represented in two of the four major professional sports leagues — the Bucks of the NBA and the Brewers of MLB. The etymological origin of the name Milwaukee is disputed.[29][30] Wiscon- sin academic Virgil J. Vogel has said, "the name Milwaukee is not difficult to explain, yet there are a number of conflicting claims made concerning it. One theory says it comes from the An- ishinaabemowin/Ojibwe word mino-ak- king, meaning "good land", or words in closely related languages that mean the same. These included Menominee and Potawatomi. This theory was popularized by a line by Alice Cooper in the 1992 comedy film Wayne's World. Another theory is that it stems from the Meskwaki language, whose term for "gathering place" is mahn-a-wau- kee. The city of Milwaukee itself claims that the name is derived from mahn-ah-wauk, a Potawatomi word for "council grounds". The name of the future city was spelled in many ways prior to 1844. People living west of the Milwaukee River preferred the modern-day spelling, while those east of the river often called it Milwaukie. Other spellings included Melleokii (1679), Millio- ki (1679), Meleki (1684), Milwarik (1699), Milwacky (1761), Milwakie (1779), Mille- wackie (1817), Milwahkie (1820), and Mil- walky (1821). The Milwaukee Sentinel used Milwaukie in its headline until it switched to Milwaukee on November 30, 1844. Indigenous cultures lived along the wa- terways for thousands of years. The first re- corded inhabitants of the Milwaukee area were various Native American tribes: the Menominee, Meskwaki, Mascouten, Sauk, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe (all Algic/Algon- quian peoples), and the Ho-Chunk (Win- nebago, a Siouan people). Many of these people had lived around Green Bay before migrating to the Milwaukee area at about the time of European contact. In the second half of the 18th century, the Native Americans living near Milwau- kee played a role in all the major European wars on the American continent. During the French and Indian War, a group of "Ojib- was and Pottawattamies from the far [Lake] Michigan" (i.e., the area from Milwaukee to Green Bay) joined the French-Canadian Daniel Liénard de Beaujeu at the Battle of the Monongahela. In the American Revolu- tionary War, the Native Americans around Milwaukee were some of the few groups to ally with the rebel Continentals. After the American Revolutionary War, the Native Americans fought the United States in the Northwest Indian War as part of the Council of Three Fires. During the War of 1812, they held a council in Milwaukee in June 1812, which resulted in their de- cision to attack Chicago[39] in retaliation against American expansion. This resulted in the Battle of Fort Dearborn on August 15, 1812, the only known armed conflict in Chicago. This battle convinced the Amer- ican government to remove these groups of Native Americans from their indige- nous land.[dubious – discuss] After being attacked in the Black Hawk War in 1832, the Native Americans in Milwaukee signed the 1833 Treaty of Chicago with the United States. In exchange for ceding their lands in the area, they were to receive monetary pay- ments and lands west of the Mississippi in Indian Territory.Whether supporting their team on the court or each other in the community, Big Blue Nation is committed to the success of the Wildcat family. The UK Alumni Association operates under the same game plan as it works to serve the students, alumni and friends of the University of Kentucky. FAMILY IS EVERYTHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, www.ukalumni.net/membership YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE W hen you stand for and with UK, you’re investing in the future of the university and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Show your true colors by becoming a Life or Active Member of the UK Alumni Association today!18 @KentuckyMBBNext >