Kentucky 'super hungry' to face North Carolina coming off ranked losses to 'show what we're made of'

Kentucky hosted No. 6 Florida to open SEC play back in January, a game that will go down as one of the most exciting in recent Rupp Arena memory — a full house with Big Blue Nation at peak performance, leading the Wildcats to a 106-100 victory over the future national champions. Koby Brea scored 23 points with seven of the team’s 14 made 3-pointers, six players finishing in double figures on the winning side.

On the losing side? None other than Denzel Aberdeen, who scored four points in 15 minutes off the bench for the Gators. Now, he’s a starting guard for the Wildcats, currently leading the team in scoring at 14.0 points per game to go with 4.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.6 steals in 25.1 minutes per contest. He knows what it feels like to walk into enemy territory with the most passionate fanbase in college basketball rooting against you.

This time, the senior has that same fanbase behind him as the program prepares for its first big-time opponent at Rupp Arena — quite the shift from a year ago.

“It was a terrible feeling,” Aberdeen said of that battle. “I remember coming in here, it was very loud. I couldn’t even hear the coach calling plays, but this is a place you definitely want to play in. It’s a place you want to be, for sure. The fans are amazing here and it just gives us an upper edge.”

Thanks to Friends of Coal for powering KSR’s game day coverage. 

For Malachi Moreno, he was there for most of Kentucky’s home games in Mark Pope‘s first season, but only in the stands as a fan. Now, the 7-foot freshman is set to start in his first prime-time event at the most iconic college basketball venue in the country.

“Honestly, I can’t wait to see what Rupp Arena is about,” he added. “I only experienced so much of it as a fan and now I get to experience it as a player.”

This time, though, the target is on Kentucky’s back — winless in two tries against serious competition. The Wildcats failed their first test against Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center, then again against Michigan State in New York City. The world now questions this group as a legitimate Final Four contender with jokes coming left and right about roster cost and return on investment.

Is there a desire to shut those critics up with a statement performance against the Tar Heels?

Trent Noah stuck with the script coming off the team’s 50-point win over Tennessee Tech in the return of John Pelphrey immediately before Thanksgiving. The Cats are hungry, but they’re always hungry.

“Yeah, I mean, we’re super hungry. We say the next game is our biggest game, so that’s the mentality that we came in with,” he said. “Tennessee Tech, it was the biggest game. It was the toughest game that we’ll play all year. And then coming up Tuesday, we have to have that same mindset. That’s what coach preaches to us, and it’s true. So we gotta be ready come Tuesday.”

Moreno was more open about their desire to prove themselves on the big stage after a disappointing start to the season — at least by their own standards.

“Very eager. You know, it’s another opportunity to show what we’re made of,” he said. “And it’s another opportunity to get better as a team. So I think just having one of those games, it’s a big stepping point for us.”

That’s been the confusing part for fans, watching the ups and downs of this group with head-turners and head-scratchers dating back to the exhibition schedule. They looked like juggernauts against No. 1 Purdue, then collapsed days later against unranked Georgetown. In the regular season, they’ve steamrolled no-name foes, but crumbled against the only two teams with a pulse.

Just how good is this team? We still don’t know as fans — but they’re ready to prove what they know about themselves as players.

“We’re very eager. I mean, obviously, we won two games that we wanted to win,” Aberdeen said of the pre-Thanksgiving tune-up games before December’s gauntlet. “We definitely got to keep winning — especially from now on. We’ve got another great team coming in. We just got to go back to the drawing board. … I just know they’re a great team, got a great coach, great staff, great players. We just got to come in ready for them.”

Maybe it was the spirit of the Thanksgiving season, but the time off and lead-up to North Carolina has only made these Wildcats hungrier to get back to the top position in the national conversations and earn the respect they may have lost against the Cards and Spartans.

They got humbled, but they weren’t broken. Instead, they picked themselves up off the mat and have put themselves in position to start throwing some punches again. This time, it’ll be against a top-20 blue blood inside Rupp Arena.

“That’s the biggest thing for us,” Otega Oweh said Monday. “We’ve been waiting for these type of games since we lost both of them. For us, it’s just going out there and knowing that we’re one of those teams, we’re one of the higher teams, one of the better teams. 

“When we have these games, we have to compete as such, so we’ve been waiting for these.”

“I think we’re hungry and excited for it,” Collin Chandler added. “We’re not shy about it. We’re not shying away from North Carolina. We’re coming in there ready to win.”

We’ll find out Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. ET, live on ESPN.