Kentucky is 10 games into the college basketball season, and it’s pretty clear that the undefeated Wildcats are the class of the NCAA. But come Saturday against North Carolina at Rupp Arena, the No. 1-ranked Wildcats will have a chance to show just how deep and talented they really are.
That’s because the Wildcats this week lost one of their most veteran big men. Junior Alex Poythress (6-foot-8) tore an ACL going up for a layup in practice Thursday and is out for the rest of the season.
“Alex was a beast,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said at his news conference early Friday afternoon. “He made blocks where normal players (wouldn’t) — ‘Where did that come from?’ — a rebound a dunk, things that people can’t do, he could do. Now we’re different. You don’t have that guy you can play poorly, and he’ll go do something and get you back in the game.”
Whether Kentucky flinches against a team with a pretty talented front line of its own in No. 21 North Carolina will give a good indication of just how special the Wildcats are. As of Thursday evening, they were in a state of shock.
“’Next man up’ and all that, it’s all great coachspeak,” Calipari said. “The reality of it is, the fear and anxiety and all the other stuff that Alex has and we have for him, it zaps you.”
Calipari said players were in tears when he told them the extent of Poythress’ injury.
“It’s a tough deal,” Calipari said. “And then you have a game like this.”
North Carolina (6-2) was picked to finish second in the ACC this season, but suffered early-season losses to Butler and Iowa. The Tar Heels are coming off a dominating win over East Carolina to get back on track, with junior big man Brice Johnson scoring 19 points and grabbing 17 rebounds.
If anybody can match up with Kentucky in the frontcourt, it might be the Tar Heels, who have six players on their roster 6-foot-8 or taller. Kentucky has six now without Poythress.
“We’ve got to play the best game we’ve played all year,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “It’s a big-time challenge and our guys understand that. There’ve been times before that we’ve been that big-time challenge for other people, and we’ve tried to take people seriously, and my guess is they’ll take us very seriously too.”
From the sounds of it, Kentucky will come in determined not to have their season completely derailed like it did the last time the Wildcats suffered such a devastating injury. The Wildcats lost six of their last 10 games in 2013 after Nerlens Noel tore his ACL.
“You have to be more responsible and you have to add a little bit to your game,” Calipari said. “When Nerlens went down we didn’t have that mentality, that makeup and we weren’t able to do it. We’re going to find out if this team has the ability to do it.”
The Wildcats might not be deep enough now to two-platoon as Calipari had done to start the season, playing five at a time for shifts. But the Wildcats still have seven players averaging higher in scoring than Poythress (5.5 points, 3.8 rebounds.)
Karl Anthony-Towns, a 6-11 freshman, might be Kentucky’s best player anyway. He has averaged 2.8 blocks per game to go with 9.1 points and 6.7 rebounds in 18 minutes per game. Willie Cauley-Stein leads Kentucky with 10.3 points per game, to go along with 6.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks.
The Wildcats have blocked 25 percent of opponents’ shots taken inside the 3-point arc. Williams compared their shot blocking ability with when both Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo played for Georgetown in the late 1980s, early ’90s.
“Around the rim and protecting the rim is a huge part of the game,” Williams said. “And they’ve cornered the market this year.”
Columbia might have been onto something Wednesday night, taking the air out of the ball in a game they led Kentucky for almost 27 minutes, before losing 56-46. But Kentucky guards Devin Booker and Tyler Ulis were out with minor injuries that night, and both are expected to be back Saturday.
Stalling techniques are little more Dean Smith-leaning than the up-tempo style Williams likes to coach his North Carolina teams to play. Williams said to upset Kentucky, the Tar Heels will have to limit turnovers, shoot well from the outside, have their best rebounding game of the season — and hope Kentucky misses some shots.
“I haven’t seen a team like this,” Williams said. “None comes to mind in 27 years as a coach.”
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