Apparently, playing a nearby rival doesn’t hurt either side.

At least it hasn’t seemed to have harmed Kentucky and Louisville, who Saturday will play an NCAA national semifinal game in New Orleans.

Although the teams played on a semi-regular basis (nine times between 1913-22, four times twice a year), they didn’t play each other again in a regular-season game until Nov. 26, 1983, at Rupp Arena.

That made it nearly 61 years between games (except for three NCAA games) for schools only about an hour apart, mostly because Kentucky — the younger of the two schools — didn’t think much of Louisville, or any other school in the state.

I covered that 1983 game at Rupp Arena, and there was an NCAA atmosphere. Kentucky, which leads the series 29-14, won 65-44, and the next morning many Lexington stores had T-shirts for sale hanging in their front windows, final score showing.

It took months for the two schools to put that game together, which actually began a four-year contract.

The teams have played annually since, much like nearby Cincinnati and Xavier do and Dayton and Wright State don’t.

Kentucky has dominated the series since that 1983 game, 18-10, including a 69-62 victory on New Year’s Eve in Lexington earlier this season.

And now the two schools about 70 miles apart are playing again in the Final Four. Neither team seems to mind.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.