PIKEVILLE, Ky. — Per the latest U.S. Census, taken in 2020, Pikeville's population is a hair under 7,800. Not small enough to be a blip on the map, a blink-and-you-miss-it town. Yet it's not a sprawling metropolis, either.
But big events — something that makes the entire state take notice — are rare.
That's why Kentucky's men's basketball team holding its annual Blue-White scrimmage in Pikeville meant so much to those in the community, especially in light of the hardships suffered by those in the area in recent months, as flooding ravaged 13 counties in the eastern portion of the state, leaving 43 dead.