BOZICH | Louisville needs to put teeth back into the Kentucky rivalry | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Milt Wagner would not have tolerated a 29-point wedgie from Kentucky. Lancaster Gordon would still be howling at teammates if he played on a Louisville team that lost to Kentucky by 29.

Rodney McCray? Don’t ask how McCray, his brother, Scooter, or Charles Jones would have responded to a punch in the nostrils like that.

Louisville lost to Kentucky, 90-61, last season. Nobody is forecasting another 29-point knuckle sandwich when the teams meet at 2 p.m. Saturday in the KFC Yum! Center.

The line opened Friday afternoon with Kentucky favored by one. In about an hour, it moved to Wildcats by two.

But coming closer should never be the goal for the Cardinals against the Wildcats. Winning their share should be the goal.

It’s time for Louisville to put more of its teeth into the rivalry.

Win as many against the Wildcats as they lose. Stop allowing John Calipari’s team to string together three or four wins in a row.

“It’s a big game,” Louisville point guard Christen Cunningham said. “We’re not going to try to act like it’s not.”

“When you’re driving on the Watterson, or you’re driving on the Gene Snyder, and you see that Big Blue plate next to you, you just sort of keep staring straight ahead,” U of L coach Chris Mack said.

Comedic pause.

“Or you hit them from behind … just kidding.”

For the last decade, Louisville has played as if they’ve been hit from behind.

From March 26,1983 (when Louisville won the one and only Dream Game in overtime in Knoxville, Tenn., for a trip to the Final Four) through 2009, the teams played 28 times.

Kentucky won 17. Louisville won 11.

That’s not news you want to scream to the Basketball Hall of Fame, but it is considerably better than how Louisville has performed in the 11 games since John Calipari took over in Lexington for the 2009-10 season.

The scoreboard says Kentucky 9, Louisville 2.

Louisville has not won in Rupp Arena. Louisville has not won by more than a three-point basket. Kentucky won both games in the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky won four straight. Twice.

In other words, under Calipari, Kentucky has treated Louisville like Vanderbilt.

Oops. Actually, that is not true. That’s an insult to Vanderbilt. Calipari has lost four times to the Commodores.

Under Calipari, Kentucky has treated Louisville like Alabama, Auburn, Georgia or LSU. Calipari has only lost to those teams twice during his run in Lexington.

Louisville does not aspire to be Alabama, Auburn, Georgia or LSU. I doubt that Mack left a good job at Xavier to become a Kentucky stocking stuffer.

Rick Pitino understood that. He just couldn’t do anything about it. On his final two trips to Lexington, Pitino was beaten before he exited the team bus.

David Padgett understood that. But his team’s performance against the Wildcats in Rupp Arena last December was likely the Cardinals’ most timid and inept effort of the year.

Padgett’s shot at keeping the Louisville job on more than an interim basis disappeared after Kentucky punked the Cardinals from every angle, leading by 14 at halftime and by 28 with 10 minutes to play.

Here is a stat that illustrates the panic that overcame Louisville: The Cards settled for 25 three-pointers and made three.

Mack was in Cincinnati, preparing his Xavier team for a Big East Conference game against DePaul on the afternoon of the U of L-UK game. But he said that as a basketball junkie, he always tried to watch the game. Mack is a competitor. I cannot improve on his take on how that defeat should continue to taste in the Louisville locker room.

“I haven’t brought it up a whole lot,” Mack said. “I wasn’t in the locker room. I wasn’t on the sidelines. I wasn’t a part of the chemistry a year ago. So I haven’t used it a whole lot.

“But as a competitor, if you haven’t internalized that and thought about that 90-61 ass-whupping, then I don’t want you on my team.”

Obvious follow-up question: What is Mack’s record in rivalry games?

If Louisville performs as well against Kentucky as Xavier did against Cincinnati, this rivalry will not have to worry about empty seats.

Mack and Xavier went 6-3 against Cincinnati.

He never got beat by 29 but defeated the Bearcats by 13, 10, 17 and 23.

“This is why you come to Louisville, to play in games like this,” Mack said. “As I said before, it’s the best non-conference game in the entire country.

“If you’re not playing, and you’re a college basketball player or coach, you tune into the game. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of something like that?”

You also come to Louisville to put teeth back into the rivalry, teeth that have been missing since Kentucky started treating the Cardinals like Auburn or Georgia.