John Calipari shares first impressions of UCLA

A battle between Blue Bloods is set to take place in Madison Square Garden Saturday afternoon between No. 13 Kentucky and No. 16 UCLA. UK head coach John Calipari is no stranger to these marquee matchups, and made sure he did his fair share of scouting before heading to New York City.

Especially after seeing what the Burins did to No. 20 Maryland Wednesday night – defeating the Terrapins 87-60 – Calipari sung UCLA’s praises ahead of the CBS Sports Classic.

“I’ve watched a bunch of tape on them and they’re really good. The biggest thing is that they’re really physical,” Calipari said Thursday. “Defensively, they’re really physical. They fight in the post, they fight in pick and rolls, if you don’t fight, you don’t have a chance this game. You’ve got to negate that part of it. That’s really hard to do, not many people have been able to do it. When they shoot the ball like they shot the ball yesterday, they’re really good.”

UCLA and Kentucky are in the same spot right now. They both have a couple losses to formidable opponents, though if only a couple shots bounced their way would see both of these teams potentially undefeated and the team to beat in college basketball.

“They’re probably like us,” Calipari said knowingly. “There’s a game that they should have won and they’d be top-five, but right now, they’re one of those teams that I watch and see that they have a little bit of everything.”

Kentucky’s only losses came in double overtime to Gonzaga and in the final minutes against Michigan State. For UCLA, Baylor and Illinois were able to sneak past the Bruins last month, but they’re now on a six-game winning streak and is playing their best basketball of the season.

Tip-off between the Wildcats and Bruins in the CBS Sports Classic is set for Saturday at 5:15 p.m. ET live on CBS. The game will immediately follow No. 23 Ohio State vs. North Carolina, which is set to tip at 3 p.m. ET.