Approximately 3,500 fans came out to Rupp Arena on Saturday morning to watch ESPN’s College GameDay host its first show of the season.

This was Kentucky’s 15th time hosting the show, and the Cats are 5-9 in such games. The Cats are hosting Florida tonight, which has been featured on GameDay seven times before tonight’s contest.

Fans filled in the lower bowl with signs that featured a variety of topics, such as Zion Williamson, Jay Bilas and poking fun at Florida.

Once the show began, Rece Davis, Seth Greenberg, Jay Williams and Bilas spent time talking about the Cats and the Gators, and Greenberg said he believes the addition of Jarred Vanderbilt could push UK’s team to the Elite Eight.

The second segment of the show featured John Calipari’s discussion with the analysts, where they talked about the Cats and the potential new NCAA rules that could allow high school players to go straight to the NBA. 

Calipari, who is considered the pioneer of “one-and-done” players, said he believes players should have the option to go pro directly out of high school. He thinks one thing that could help that transition is allowing high school juniors to participate in a combine that could help evaluate the players’ futures.

Calipari also spent some time talking about the NBA G-League, which again Calipari favors, but he doesn’t think players should go straight to the G-League. He thinks the G-League should be the second or third option for a player if the NBA or other pro leagues don’t work out for them.

Calipari ended his segement with a half-court shot attempt, which he missed. The random student selected for a chance to win $18,000 also missed the half court shots he took, even after promising his family he would walk out of Rupp with the money.

The show concluded with the panelists making their selections for Saturday’s slate of games, including Williams’ famous tradition of wearing the jersey of the team he thinks will win tonight’s matchup.

To the delight of Kentucky fans, Williams was wearing a Kentucky jersey underneath his suit.

The Cats now have the rest of the afternoon to prepare for the Gators in what could be a determiner in the SEC standings later down the road. Tipoff is at 8:15 p.m.