(CNN) - Mitch McConnell's conservative primary challenger is hoping to score some points off of a highly publicized mistake by the Senate Minority Leader's re-election team.
Louisville businessman Matt Bevin, hoping to boost his underdog challenge against McConnell in Kentucky's May Republican primary, is going up with a TV commercial Friday that pokes fun at web video released earlier this week by the senator's campaign that included a clip of a team wearing blue uniforms celebrating a national championship in men's basketball. The major problem was that the team wasn't the Kentucky Wildcats, but instead the Duke University Blue Devils. There's little love among Kentucky college basketball fans for the powerhouse Atlantic Coast Conference school from North Carolina.
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After apologizing for the error in the video, which was produced by an outside vendor, the McConnell campaign committed another foul by replacing the clip with an image of a University of Kentucky star basketball player, which possibly violated NCAA rules. The McConnell campaign ended up pulling the video, and the incident drew plenty of local and even some national coverage. It also gave both Bevin and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, McConnell's Democratic challenger, an opportunity to criticize the Senate GOP leader.
Now Bevin's going a step further, by running a TV commercial that features a cutout of McConnell in a blue Duke University jersey. And Bevin's campaign is running the ad Friday night during the showdown between the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. The two Bluegrass State college basketball powerhouses are facing off in the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA tournament.
The spot will run in the Louisville and Lexington (home of the University of Kentucky) markets, and it's a very safe bet that lots of eyeballs will see the ad.
"March Madness in Kentucky: Commitment, courage – you gotta love it,” Bevin says in the commercial. He goes on to say "even if your team is already out of the tournament," as the visual of McConnell in a Duke uniform is put up on the scene. Duke lost in the first round of the tournament.
Polling in Kentucky indicates McConnell with a very large lead over Bevin in the race for the GOP Senate nomination.
McConnell's campaign was quick to react to the new Bevin ad, saying "given Bailout Bevin's undying commitment to a fictional account of himself and Senator McConnell, we actually expected this ad to be about the time he won a national championship back in the 80s as a point guard for the MIT Engineers."
Grimes, by the way, had picked Wichita State to beat Kentucky in her tournament bracket, which may not have played well in the Bluegrass State. The Wildcats topped the previously unbeaten Shockers in a upset victory. And she picked Louisville to fall to Florida in the national championship game.
CNN Political Editor Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report