Louisville 6-0, untested till now

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A Kentucky-Louisville game normally is notable, if only because of the heated rivalry between the teams and their respective strong basketball traditions.

But when No. 4 Louisville (6-0) and No. 23 Kentucky (6-3) meet Saturday at Rupp Arena, there will be plenty at stake besides pride. And for a change, the fact that Louisville coach Rick Pitino once had the same job at Kentucky won't be such a big deal.

Louisville is undefeated but also untested, having run through one of the nation's softest early season schedules. Meanwhile, Kentucky has lost two of its last three games and is reeling after a 26-point loss to Indiana -- the Wildcats' most lopsided defeat in 16 years. Another loss by the Wildcats likely would drop them out of the Top 25, where they've been ranked for 85 straight polls.

"We're coming off a terrible loss to Indiana," Kentucky forward Rekalin Sims said. "To come in here not ready to play against (Louisville) would be kind of insane. It's important because we need to start playing well. This is our chance."

Pitino, who resurrected the Wildcats' probation-scarred program in the 1990s, will make his third trip to Rupp Arena as the Cardinals' coach. He's 1-1, having lost in 2001 and won in 2003, when Kentucky was ranked No. 2.

Pitino, booed loudly during those two games, now feels comfortable enough coming to Lexington that he attended Kentucky's inaugural athletics Hall of Fame Celebration in September as an honored guest. Kentucky had Pitino picked up in a limousine after he arrived on a private plane from New York, where he was on a recruiting trip. The university had someone drive Pitino back to Louisville after the banquet.

"Now I look at it in a different light," Pitino said of games at Kentucky. "It's a very tough road game with a lot of fond memories. But you don't think of the memories. You don't think of (Jamal) Mashburn and (John) Pelphrey and (Richie) Farmer. You think of their current players and how you stop them. You're totally focused . . . on the task at hand."

This season's Louisville squad, with seven newcomers and only two returning starters, has yet to play away from home, and Pitino has tried to steel the Cardinals for the chaos they'll experience Saturday. He said it should prepare them well for playing on the road in the Big East Conference.

"Our message the whole week has been, we're going to be in this type of atmosphere seven or eight times this year," Pitino said. "It's a very strong home-court advantage, as strong as it gets in college basketball."

But that advantage didn't seem to help Kentucky much two weeks ago when the Wildcats lost at home to then-unranked North Carolina. Kentucky, without consistent post play, has struggled against teams with strong inside games. Smith has tried to go small and use quicker lineups, but the Wildcats' much-touted guards haven't shot as well from the perimeter as expected.

"Right now, a bunch of teams are able to push out on us and deny me the ball a lot," Kentucky senior Patrick Sparks said. "To get that inside (game) established again will make our whole team better."

Like Iowa, North Carolina and Indiana -- the three teams which have beaten Kentucky -- Louisville seems strong inside, with transfer David Padgett rounding into shape at center after a preseason knee injury and forward Juan Palacios doing the same after a major foot injury he sustained in July. But Padgett said he won't be overconfident.

"I go into every game knowing the opponent I am playing against is a very good basketball player or obviously they wouldn't be playing D-I basketball, especially at Kentucky," Padgett said. "Every team has its struggles at one point or another, but we are definitely not taking any part of their game lightly."

Louisville's leading scorer and rebounder is senior guard Taquan Dean, who's averaging 20.5 points and 7.3 boards.

"They're running the offense through him and he's producing," Smith said.

Kentucky trailed the Cardinals 32-16 at halftime of last season's game, but Sparks scored 18 of his 25 points in the second half and made three free throws with sixth-tenths of a second left to lift the Wildcats to a 60-58 win.

Sparks said he's still asked about the final sequence of that game, in which he pump-faked, drew a foul from Louisville's Ellis Myles and then coolly sank the free throws after a 3-minute delay as officials made sure their call was correct.

Sparks hasn't forgotten the play but said it won't mean much Saturday.

"That's in the past," he said. "It's going to be a new game. They're going to be all over us, but we're be all over them, though. It's going to be a fun game."

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