Cats should expect more of the same

COLUMBIA, S.C. — From here on out, this is what it’s going to be like for UK.

Even if the Cats are no longer undefeated — which, by the way, was that really going to last all the way to the Final Four? — the intensity opposing teams bring won’t change.

Every aspect of the game will be magnified, especially on the road. The fans will be louder. They’ll yell and scream for anything. Tuesday, the Gamecock faithful were even cheering Miley Cyrus (or is it Hannah Montana?) during an otherwise eventless timeout.

Ask Kansas, ask Texas. Now you can ask UK: If you’re No. 1, the opponents aren’t going to bring anything less than everything they have, every second they’re on the court. (Next week, you can likely ask Kansas again.)

Maybe President Obama should’ve driven that point home more when he spoke to the team Tuesday afternoon.

If the presidential conference call was on any of the players’ minds during the game Tuesday, I can’t blame them. Needless to say, it’s not every day you receive a thank-you from perhaps the most powerful man in the world.

But every day, these players can find distractions. One game, it may be a particularly rowdy student section. Another game, the student-athletes may have midterms looming in the backs of their minds.

Were the Cats playing a bit distracted on Tuesday? Never mind the Cats’ chat with Obama hours before ESPN-induced 9 p.m. tip. This was UK’s first game as No. 1.

Simply, this team isn’t grown up enough to know how to play like No. 1. Not yet, at least not on the road.

A team so reliant upon freshmen (only freshmen scored for UK in the second half Tuesday) has to learn as it goes. So far, the Cats have done as good a job as is possible at just that. But playing as the nation’s top team isn’t something they’ve had to learn quite yet. Until Monday when UK officially was bumped up to No. 1 status, this team played with the we-think-we’re-the-best chip on its shoulder.

All of a sudden, everyone else thought they were the best, too. Now what?

It looks like they’ll go back to having to prove what they believe.

Nobody should believe the Cats are any worse than they were when they left Lexington on Monday. South Carolina came in inspired, led by one of the nation’s premier players. Devan Downey, little but loud, put up Kobe-like figures: 30 points on 9-of-29 from the floor.

Downey’s 31-percent performance was fine, though, because the nine shots that fell went with great timing and significance. In most cases, the shots he missed were routine. The ones he made, spectacular. By the looks of it, he wasn’t about to lose that game.

UK didn’t play with quite the same urgency.

“This is what happens to a young team,” said UK coach John Calipari, who lost his first game since his Memphis team lost to Syracuse on Dec. 20, 2008.

Even though the Cats lost that bagel from the loss column Tuesday, teams won’t approach them with any less fervor.

From here on out, it won’t be any different.

James Pennington is a journalism senior. E-mail jpennington@kykernel.com.