North Carolina vs. Kentucky: Home Court and Rebounding Will Be Difference for UK

This weekend’s battle between No. 1 Kentucky and No. 5 North Carolina has a LSU-‘Bama esque feel to it.

Not in a “I hate my rival” sort of way, but you get the sense this is not the only time these supremely talented teams will meet each other.

You can make the argument that these two teams currently have the most future NBA players on their roster. The difference will be the Rupp Arena crowd that has been extremely kind to head coach John Calipari. He is currently riding an incredible 36-game winning streak in Lexington. There are few fan bases in sports like the incredibly passionate, knowledgeable and devoted fans that UK basketball possesses. 

The Tar Heels have the best player in the country in Harrison Barnes on their side, but he rolled his ankle in last week’s stunning loss to LSU and is going to be limited in practice all week. That’s a problem when you consider the Tar Heels have to play No. 9 Wisconsin on Wednesday before Saturday’s epic showdown.

The troubling sign early in the season for Carolina is their lack of effort on the glass. They have been outrebounded by three of their first six opponents including a 15-rebound margin against Michigan State.

Meanwhile, Kentucky continues to steamroll through their early season competition. Aside from a 10-point win over No. 15 Kansas, only one of their other five wins has been by less than 24 points.

Sophomore Doron Lamb has been shooting a lights-out 46 percent from three-point range thus far en route to averaging 14.2 points and 4.2 rebounds. Fellow sophomore Terrence Jones (13.3 PPG, 7.3 RPG) has been a terror in the paint for opponents and is creating matchup problems with his ridiculously lanky arms.

Yet, this is a team with more than just two players. All seven Wildcats who are playing double-digit minutes are scoring at least 7.8 points per outing. Even more amazingly, all seven of those players have taken between 40 and 59 shots over the Cats' first six games. Five of them have tallied at least 10 assists on the young season. This team is unselfish and it seems as if a new star emerges every single night.

With the Rupp Arena crowd blowing the roof off, expect Carolina to succumb to the pressure, intensity and depth of the Wildcats. They looked extremely tentative at times in their 10-point loss to UNLV in a tournament out in Las Vegas. Handling adversity has yet to be checked off the list for UNC and don’t expect things to change much on Saturday.

Prediction: UK 79 UNC 72