It’s the next game.
That’s how No. 9 Kentucky is approaching Tuesday’s rivalry encounter against No. 12 Louisville in the Wildcats’ first road game of the season.
“The nice thing for us is that every game is the biggest game we’ve ever played,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “In-state rivalry games are always fun and exciting.”
Kentucky guard Collin Chandler said the challenge is simply “treating every game. the same,” especially a rivalry game.
“I think we do a good job of preparing for every game to be our hardest game of the season,” he said. “There are no games that were coming into, relaxed for. We're going to treat it just like we did against Valpo, just like we did against the Nicholls - the next game is our biggest game. We're ready for it.”
Kentucky forward Brandon Garrison received an early taste of the rivalry when he involved in an exchange in front of the Louisville bench. Garrison isn’t concerned with last year’s tangle with the Cardinals.
“We ain’t paying (it) much mind,” he said. “They just over there talking, doing what they do. We’ve all got to keep our heads, because I was one of them who kind of lost mine last year. (I’m) learning from that.”
A year removed from last year’s 93-85 win over the Cardinals in Lexington, Garrison is taking a different approach this season.
“We’re going to go in there and take it as another game,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest games, they always talking about it, you know just going in there and not overdoing nothing and just doing us and just coming out with a win.”
Kentucky (2-0) is coming off a dominating 107-59 win over Valparaiso last Friday, easily the team’s most impressive offensive showing of the season. Kentucky split two exhibition encounters, defeating No. 1 Purdue, while falling to Georgetown.
Although neither game counted, Chandler said the setback to the Hoyas was a learning experience.
“It was good to have that feeling early in the season of lighting that fire under us and coming to practice, making every practice meaningful and humbling so that we can get a lot better,” he said. “Feeling that early was, I think, great for our team, and I think we'll be great the more we've gone through with the season. I think we'll look back at that game as a big blessing for our team. Having that (loss) early was awesome.”
The Cardinals (2-0) split a pair of games in the preseason, falling to Kansas and defeating Bucknell. In its first two official games, Louisville hit the century mark in wins over South Carolina State (104-45) and Jackson State (106-70), respectively.
“They shoot the ball well and they’re an overall good team and we're ready,” Chandler said. “We respect them (and) we're coming ready to play.”
NO JURY DUTY
Pope shared after the win over Valparaiso on his radio show that he had been selected for jury duty. On Sunday, Pope wasn't needed on Monday and Tuesday was a holiday, meaning Pope could focus on the task at hand.
"Le's go beat the Cards," Pope said in a social media post.
TRIBUTE
The Kentucky and Louisville coaching staffs will be wearing black ribbons on their chests in honor of the lives that were lost in a plane crash at Louisville Muhammed Ali Airport on Nov. 4.
GAMETRACKER: Kentucky at Louisville, 7 p.m. CT, Tuesday. TV/Radio: ESPN, UK Radio Network on 94.7 The Mix and WiLLiE 102. Coverage: www.kentuckytoday.com.
Kentucky Today File Photo by Keith Taylor
