Calipari anxious to face Gamecocks

Calipari anxious to face Gamecocks

By Keith Taylor/Sun Sports Editor
February 25, 2010

Kentucky coach John Calipari knows a change of venue won’t matter when Kentucky takes on South Carolina tonight at Rupp Arena.

“I’m going to tell you, they could beat us,” Calipari said Wednesday. “They are good enough to beat us — they have already beaten us once. They play hard, they play really physical. Did they win last year in this building? So, they aren’t intimidated by this building. They could easily come in and beat us. We’re not walking in this game and I’m certainly not saying, ‘This is a W.’ If we win it on a half court bank shot, I’ll be happy — it will be a hard game for us.”

Kentucky’s first encounter against the Gamecocks wasn’t easy and resulted in a 68-62 loss — the team’s only setback in 27 games. Although South Carolina (14-12, 5-7) has lost four of its past six games since upsetting the second-ranked Wildcats (26-1, 11-1) in Columbia, Calipari knows his team will have their hands full against Tates Creek graduate Darrin Horn’s squad. Calipari is anxious to see how much his team has improved since the last meeting between the two Southeastern Conference Eastern Division rivals.

“We just want to see if we got better from the last time we played them,” the Kentucky coach said. “They played us great last time. They shortened the game, they made tough shots at the end of the clock and they got 20 offensive rebounds. They were more physical than us, they played harder than we played, they did late-clock stuff better than we did. Our shot selection and toughness around the basket, we probably missed five layups, most of them because we got bumped a little bit. You have got to give them credit for what they did. When I watched the game, they deserved to win.”

Calipari added that the loss was beneficial for his team.

“There were four of five things we talked about that we had to get better from in that game,” he said. “You just look at that game and say it was a point for us to say, ‘These are the areas we have to get better,’ and I think most of those areas we have.”

A win over the Gamecocks will give the Wildcats at least a share of the regular season title with three games remaining. Even though getting revenge on South Carolina is in the forefront of the players’ minds, Kentucky freshman Daniel Orton said the Cats aren’t changing their approach.

“Of course we want to beat them because they beat us before, but also to keep our good record,” he said. “It is like every other game, and we are going to try to keep it that way.”

Orton’s teammate DeAndre Liggins said the Wildcats will be ready this time around.

“I think we have a new game plan this time and we have to be ready to come out and compete,” he said.

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