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Monday welcomes in the 2022-23 college basketball season, and the heralded Kentucky program will be one of the teams taking the floor. As is usually the case, this is a season where where national-championship hopes are aplenty in Lexington, and the No. 4 Wildcats begin their journey toward redemption as they host the Howard Bison in their season-opener. 

Kentucky enters this season trying to erase the memory of last year's early exit from the NCAA Tournament, which came in the form of a first-round loss to No. 15 seed St. Peter's. While that may have left a bad taste in the mouth of the Wildcats and their fans, they have the roster to make a deep postseason run in 2023. That starts with reigning National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe, who chose to return instead of heading to the NBA Draft. He is joined by point guard Sahvir Wheeler, who was named to the preseason All-SEC first team.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, Tshiebwe won't be available for Monday's opener because he is still rehabbing an offseason knee procedure. Wheeler's status is also in question after he aggravated a prior knee injury in one of Kentucky's exhibition games.

Kentucky also brings in a pair of five-star recruits from its 2022 signing class: guard Cason Wallace and forward Chris Livingston. If those two can come in and make an immediate impact, the Wildcats will be a force to be reckoned with yet again under John Calipari.

Howard gets the unenviable task of coming into Rupp Arena on opening night after a 16-13 season in 2021-22 that saw the team finish second in the MEAC. To make the challenge that much bigger for the Bison, they lost leading scorer Kyle Foster in the offseason.

How to watch Kentucky vs. Howard live

Date: Monday, Nov. 7 | Time: 6:30 p.m. ET
Location: Rupp Arena -- Lexington, Kentucky
TV: SEC Network | Live stream:  fuboTV (Try for free)