No. 6 Texas rivals No. 1 UK in size, talent

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rick Barnes fielded several questions from reporters this week, leading up to his University of Texas basketball team's game at top-ranked Kentucky tonight, which came with an underlying tone: How in the world will you handle these guys?

It's true that the Wildcats (7-0) have won their games by an average of 34.4 points. It's true that UK is the biggest – seven players 6-8 or taller, four at least 6-10 – and deepest team in the country. But Barnes' sixth-ranked Longhorns (7-0) are no slouches.

"I mean, it's difficult. I'm not going to make any ones about it," Barnes said, but "we've got good players, too, now. Don't think we don't. We've got some good players. Our guys are going to understand the challenge and I think good players like these types of environments and they get excited about it and we're going to come play.

"We don't have anything scheduled to visit any horse farms or any of that, so we're coming to play. We are coming to play, and I think John (Calipari) knows our team's coming to play."

MORE: Texas' Barnes: UK's Calipari "very much underrated"

MORE: Q&A: Kentucky's John Calipari previews Texas

To this point, Kentucky has had a distinct size and talent advantage on everyone it has played, but Texas can counter with at least similar amounts of both. The Longhorns have nine former four- or five-star recruits on the roster, including McDonald's All-American's Myles Tuner and Cameron Ridley.

Turner is a 6-foot-11, 240-pound freshman who is averaging 12.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.3 blocks in just 20 minutes per game off the bench. Ridley is a 6-9, 285-pound junior starting at center. Cats point guard Andrew Harrison, a Texas native and high school rival of Ridley's, knows what is in store.

"It's going to be tough. We're going to have to really get him to move out of the paint," Harrison said. "He's a really good player. We'll have to work to keep him off the glass and off the block."

Ridley has blocked 11 shots in the last five games and is one of five major contributors for Texas who are at least 6-8 and 240-plus pounds.

"It's going to be a hard game for us," Calipari said. "Nothing would be better for us than having a team like Texas come in and hit us right in the mouth. We need to know when a team comes in and scores their first eight times, 10 times down the floor, making tough shots and we're missing open shots, how do we respond?

"Are will still tough? Are we still having fun? Are we still playing together? Those things are out in front of us yet."

So talent-rich is this matchup, UK has reserved seats for 24 representatives from 19 different NBA franchises.

The Longhorns would be an even bigger threat if they weren't without starting point guard and leading scorer Isaiah Taylor – who'll miss his fifth straight game with a wrist injury – but they still present the Cats' most even matchup inside so far this season.

UK and Texas rank 1-2 nationally in two-point field-goal percentage defense, the Cats allowing opponents to make just 28.8 percent inside the arc and the Horns allowing only 31.8 percent. They rank first and third in block percentage – Kentucky swatting 26.7 percent of opponent's two-point tries and UT rejecting 20.3 percent.

The two teams also rank second and fourth nationally in stat guru Ken Pomeroy's Adjusted Defensive Efficiency – points per 100 possessions allowed: 84.0 by the Wildcats and 87.1 by the Longhorns. Apparently, though, UK's big men are actually excited for the chance to pick on someone their own size.

"It should be a good challenge for them. They don't really get to play guys their size all the time, so I think they will enjoy this," shooting guard Aaron Harrison said. "I think it's better to play against a guy that's your size, being a big guy, because you can be more physical and you can battle more. So I think that will help us."

Calipari laughed at that notion – "I think we'd rather play against smaller guys" – but Andrew Harrison theorized that UK's post players will benefit from fairer officiating against Texas. Because they dwarf most opponents, he said, the Cats' big guys get a disproportionate amount of foul calls against them while the other side is free to hack away on the giants.

"Now that they get to play, it'll be a fun matchup," he said. Also: "In practice, it's a battle down low, so I know our guys are prepared for the size."

The feeling is mutual. Barnes, whose team won on the road against reigning NCAA champion Connecticut on Sunday, bristles at the idea Texas will be intimidated.

"They're big. We're big," he said. "They're probably bigger in the backcourt than us, but across the front line, I mean, it's probably pretty even across the board there. In a game like this, you've got to be playing at a very high level, but we're not going to make it bigger than what this is.

"We're in December and it's a challenge. We're playing against the best team in college basketball right now."

Kyle Tucker can be reached at (502) 582-4361. Follow him on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ.