ATLANTA — At Kentucky, the bar is set a lot higher than most places. It’s national championship or bust.
“It’s Kentucky,” Coach John Calipari said. “Do you expect anything else?”
Tonight, the Wildcats will be matched against one of the few college basketball programs that can give them a run for passion and tradition.
“There’s always been a special aura around and about Indiana to me,” Coach Tom Crean said, “and I would say the same thing about Kentucky.”
With a dozen national titles between them (seven for the Wildcats, five for Indiana), this is about as good as it gets without actually being at the Final Four. Throw in some enticing subplots — from Crean leading a turnaround after the storied program fell on hard times, to Calipari positioning Kentucky for another title run with his latest one-and-likely-done team.
But this is only a prelude for the top-seeded Wildcats (33-2). Unless they are cutting down the nets in New Orleans, this season will be judged a failure.
“You’re supposed to win every game by 25,” Calipari said. “If you’re winning by 15, what’s the issue? What’s going on with the program? If you lose, God forbid, lose one, how can we lose this game?”
Fourth-seeded Indiana (27-8) handed the Wildcats one of their defeats, a buzzerbeating 73-72 regular season victory a couple of weeks before Christmas. While that was a mere speed bump for Kentucky on the way to finishing No. 1 in the rankings, the victory was a huge boost to Indiana’s self-esteem.
“I feel like we’re playing with a lot more confidence than we were playing with back then,” said junior forward Christian Watford, who hit the winning three-pointer against the Wildcats.
Back in 2002, Indiana made a surprising run to the national championship game, held in the same building where the Hoosiers face the Wildcats today. But that was a rare blip of success in the post-Bob Knight era. Mike Davis didn’t last. Kelvin Sampson was forced out by allegations of serious NCAA violations. Taking over a program in tatters, Cream’s first team went 6-25 and managed only one victory in the Big Ten. Over the last two seasons, the Hoosiers went a combined 22-41 overall, just 7-29 in conference play.
“When you’re coming off what we’ve dealt with the last couple of years, you have no choice but to treat every game as the most important game,” Crean said. “If you do that enough, it leads to moments like this.”
Kentucky won 24 consecutive games before losing to Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament championship. In a way, that might’ve helped the Wildcats, removing the burden of a winning streak before they headed off to the NCAA tournament. They barely broke a sweat in their first two games.
“Their team is clicking on all cylinders,” Crean said.
The Hoosiers coach is most impressed by the way Calipari — for the third year in a row — has molded a collection of top high school players into a powerhouse college team.
Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague could very well be the latest batch of Kentucky blue-chippers to stop off in Lexington, Ky., on their way to the NBA. But they hardly come across as a bunch of kids worried about individual stats at the expense of the team’s success.
Three players have taken more shots than Davis, the team’s top scorer and defensive stopper. Kidd-Gilchrist ranks fifth on the team in field-goal attempts. Darius Miller, one of only two seniors on the Kentucky roster, said this group seems to have meshed better than Calipari’s first two Kentucky teams.
“Everybody gets along. We really care about each other,” Miller said. “I think the main point is we have a lot of fun with everything we do. You see us laughing and smiling on the court, clapping, and you see all the emotion we leave on the court.”
Crean has his own top freshman, 6-11 Cody Zeller. He leads the Hoosiers in scoring (15.5 points a game) and rebounding (6.5), giving Indiana an offensive weapon with at least a fighting chance against Davis. During that December meeting, Indiana managed to get Davis in foul trouble and limit him to 24 minutes — a strategy the Hoosiers would certainly like to replicate today. But Davis has played with much more discipline since then, called for no more than three fouls in any game.
That’s what Calipari likes to see.
“It’s simple what I tell these guys,” he said. “It’s not football. It is not a touchdown (if they score). We’ll score seven seconds later. If you break down, let ’em score. Don’t foul. I just say it over and over.”
While the border rivals meet regularly during the regular season, this will be the first time since 1983 — and only the fourth time overall — that they’ve faced off in the NCAA tournament.
At a glance
TODAY’S GAMES
All times Central
SOUTH REGIONAL
At The Georgia Dome, Atlanta
Baylor (29-7) vs. Xavier (23-12), 6:15 p.m. Kentucky (34-2) vs. Indiana (27-8), 8:45 p.m.
MIDWEST REGIONAL
At Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis
North Carolina (31-5) vs. Ohio (29-7), 6:47 p.m. N.C. State (24-12) vs. Kansas (29-6), 9:17 p.m.
Sports, Pages 24 on 03/23/2012