Cards face difficult task in Wildcats

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Topranked Kentucky has been so dominant that discussion has shifted toward whether the Wildcats are now capable of going unbeaten.

Kentucky’s players acknowledge the lofty talk even as they try to tune it out, especially since they still have to clear fourthranked Louisville (110) in Saturday’s annual battle for Bluegrass State bragging rights.

Beating the Wildcats’ deep platoon system will be a tall task for the Cardinals, who have lost six of seven in the series. Kentucky (120) has won by an average margin of 29 points this season and beaten three ranked foes by 19.3 points.

The Wildcats expect things to be more challenging and hostile in their first true road game as Louisville aims to end a twogame slide against its archrival.

“It’s kind of hard not to hear it,” Kentucky 7footer Willie CauleyStein said Friday of the chatter. “It’s just whether you take it in or not. I’ve been in this little game for a long time, it feels like, and the college game is so different. One game you can be really good, one game you can be really bad, and it’s just the draw of the day.”

Louisville will come in at full strength for the soldout game at the KFC Yum! Center.

Junior forward Montrezl Harrell (16.7 points, 10.0 rebounds) returns from a onegame suspension after an ejection last week at Western Kentucky, bolstering a Cardinals frontcourt that will have its hands full against CauleyStein and four other Wildcats at least 6foot9 — a key reason Kentucky has blocked a nationbest 104 shots.