So when Kentucky Coach John Calipari was asked after his team's 82-70 victory over Baylor if his Wildcats might be distracted this week by a national semifinal matchup with its archrival Louisville at the Final Four in New Orleans, he just shrugged.
It was an easy answer for him.
"I'm not worried about who we're playing," Calipari said.
No. 1 Kentucky (36-2) dunked over Baylor's height, shot over its defense and blitzed the Bears with transition in front of 24,035 fans, most of them wearing Kentucky blue, at the Georgia Dome. When the Wildcats play as well as they did in the first half while building a 42-22 lead, it really does not matter what team they play. And that includes Louisville, which lost to Kentucky, 69-62, on Dec. 31.
Kentucky is considered to have the best collection of talent in college basketball, and very little of it is from its home state, so the players are not predisposed to feel the pressure of the fierce Red versus Blue rivalry with Louisville. Among the Wildcats' top seven players, only the senior wing Darius Miller is a Kentuckian. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, a versatile 6-foot-7 player who led the Wildcats with 19 points against Baylor, is from New Jersey. Davis, a 6-10 freshman who had 18 points and 11 rebounds, is from Chicago.
Louisville and Kentucky have split their four matchups in the N.C.A.A. tournament, but this will be their first meeting in the Final Four.
