‘Cats Gear Up for Freshman-Heavy St. John’s [VIDEO]

It's a 6:30 tip time for the Kentucky Wildcats tonight at Rupp Arena as they take on the St. John's Red Storm. (In an unrelated aside, "Red Storm" is a really cool name...and we're back.) The contest is part of the Big East/SEC Challenge which began two years ago. UK hasn't lost a game in the conference battle yet; they beat Connecticut in 2009 and Notre Dame in 2010. Tonight they get a talented but almost painfully young St. John's squad that comes in with the added disadvantage of being very thin; three members of their stellar freshman class were declared ineligible. And I wouldn't be surprised if the fact that St. John's head coach Steve Lavin has been recovering from prostate cancer has also been weighing heavily on their minds. In fact, Coach Lavin did not make the trip down from New York. On the plus side for St. John's, one of their players is named God's Gift Achiuwa. That has to count for something, right? Anyway, we'll see a game tonight between 2 of the 10 winningest basketball programs of all time. Kentucky ranks #1 while St. John's is 7th. There will be a lot of history on the court tonight at Rupp Arena. And, as we all know, North Carolina looms large on Saturday. UK shouldn't fall into the trap of looking past tonight's opponent. Somehow I think Coach John Calipari won't let that happen. The Cats! The Red Storm (still so cool)! It's on!