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Kentucky head coach John Calipari has never shied away from playing against the toughest teams in the nation. This Saturday, Calipari and his Cats will face No. 9 North Carolina, another one of college basketball’s blue bloods, in the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta (approximately 5:30 p.m. ET, CBS).
Kentucky associate head coach Bruiser Flint does not think that the coaching staff will have to get the players fired up to play in this game.
“You always get excited not only when you play North Carolina but in these events,” Flint said. “It’s always good to play against these opponents. If coaches have to motivate you to play in these type games, you’re going to be in trouble. I think the guys are excited about playing.”
When Kentucky faced another blue blood, Kansas, early in the year, it was Jayhawks’ big man Hunter Dickinson who dominated the game. North Carolina has a similar player in Armando Bacot, but Flint hopes that this time around, Kentucky will be better equipped to defend a very talented big man.
The Cats got 7-1 Aaron Bradshaw back two weeks ago. Now, 7-0 Ugonna Onyenso appears to be on the cusp of making his return. Flint thinks that makes the Cats better defensively on the interior.
“Hopefully, we can handle him (better) because we have two guys who can match up with him,” Flint said. “We didn’t have that against Dickinson.”
As far as Onyenso, Flint thinks he is somewhat ahead of schedule because of his experience in playing for UK last season.
“He’s been pretty good in practice,” Flint said. “Ugo played last year, so he has a pretty good idea about what we ask of him. He’s done well in practice. He’s got some experience.”
One Response
When we were the gold standard of college basketball we played Kansas, North Carolina, and Indiana every year. I seriously doubt that our program will ever get back to the glory days when nobody ever had a conversation about national title prospects without talking about Kentucky.
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