Three more...

Photo by AP The scary thing about Indiana wasn't just that they knew the recipe for beating Kentucky.  It was that they had all the right ingredients and felt comfortable in the kitchen.  So, it wasn't entirely surprising when the Hoosiers came out strong against the Cats Friday night, going toe-to-toe with them from the tip and going right at Anthony Davis, just as they had in Bloomington in December.  For a stretch, the plan worked as Davis picked up his second foul only six minutes into the game and had to head to the bench with the Cats up 16-13. From there, the game change immediately.  You could sense the Hoosiers were feeling that same sort of magic as they charged back after Kentucky took a seven-point lead and went up four with 3:30 to go in the half.  Even with Cody Zeller on the bench with two fouls himself, Indiana seemed to still have that Bloomington swagger, in part because another piece of that December upset recipe, Christian Watford, was rolling.  The  junior forward, who dropped 20 on the Cats the first time around, scored 15 in the first half and carried the load confidently. But Watford's stellar first half and Anthony Davis' first half foul trouble were the only two parts of the game that really looked anything like the Indiana win 103 days ago (but who's counting?) because the other part of the upset equation refused to be a factor.  You can play your best game against the Cats, but ultimately, Kentucky will have to beat Kentucky.  And on Friday, they refused to do so. In the first half, the Cats found their production in the two places where they looked the most vulnerable the first time around.  Sophomore Terrence Jones, whose disappearance in Bloomington has taken on myth-like proportions, scored the game's first five points and finished the first half with 10 points and 4 rebounds.  More importantly, the never-ending motor that he discovered while he was healing from a broken finger was running at full-speed and it left IU's interior players looking gassed and struggling to keep up.  Freshman point guard Marquis Teague, who played a terrible first half against the Hoosiers in December, came out with the same intensity and score 6 points and handed out 6 dimes in the first half.  During the stretch where Kentucky extended their lead from three to seven, Teague hit two free throws and then dished out assists on four straight plays, giving the Cats the run they desperately needed with the National Player of the Year on the bench. But the reason that Kentucky has been so lethal this season is because they will attack you relentlessly and once you think you've adjusted your gameplan to control the players giving you fits, someone else comes out firing.  And that's what happened once the Hoosiers found a way to control Teague and disrupt Jones.  Freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 11 points in the final six minutes of the first half en route to a 24 point and 10 rebound double-double and when Davis returned from his foul trouble, he grabbed 12 boards and blocked 3 shots to go with his 9 points.  Sophomore guard Doron Lamb, perhaps the team's most overlooked player, poured in 21 points, giving him an 18 points per game average in the tournament, tops on the team.  As a team, they hit 35 of their 37 free throws and, most astoundingly, committed only six turnovers in scoring 102 points.  Think about that.  It's incredible. The story of the game, though, wasn't so much what the individual Kentucky players did when it was time for them to step up or the impressive stats.  It was more about reminding everyone what a collective force they are and again sending the message that your best will never be as good as Kentucky's best.  Make no mistake about it, Indiana gave the Cats their best shot.  Watford had his best game of the season.  Cody Zeller hit 9 of 14 shots and finished with 20 and 7.  Jordan Hulls went for 12 points and 9 assists.  The entire starting five reached double-digits in points.  But aside from a five-minute stretch in the middle of the first half, the game was never really in doubt.  And that's because Kentucky showed that they're not just a good basketball team, they're a great basketball team.  And they're on a mission. Watching the team in their first two games in Louisville - where Western Kentucky and Iowa State both played at an astoundingly high level - the most impressive thing about them wasn't the fast break (amazing) or the defense (pretty damn good) or the rebounding (dominant).  It was the fire that each and every guy on the court played with.  There's a look that great athletes get in their eyes, almost like an animal that's ready to attack its prey or defend itself, and every player on the team had it.  When the crowd was cheering at a level I've not seen at a Kentucky game, the guys wearing the jerseys were celebrating harder.  When the score got to 15 against Iowa State, it never went away.  They were playing for the kill and against Indiana, it was there again.  It's a beautifully scary thing. So while there are certainly things you can pick at after their first three wins in the tournament, most notably the way opposing guards have gotten into the paint (a byproduct of defending great three-point shooting teams), the biggest takeway is that this team has the fire that all of the great ones have.  It's a rare thing, especially for a group so talented and with many staring down millions of dollars in a few short weeks, and it's something that you don't see in the eyes of North Carolina, Syracuse, Ohio State or anyone else.  This team isn't just special from a talent and experience standpoint.  They're unique in the way they will attack you from start to finish and try to rip your heart out.  And when Indiana tried their best to conjure up that upset special Friday night, they learned what so many other teams have found out along the way.  These Cats are on a mission.  Just pray you don't get in their way. Tell 'em Cal...  ***Make sure to check out cn|2 Saturday at 2pm for our Elite Eight Special.  Perrin Johnson and I will be hosting from the studio and Matt will check in from Atlanta to preview UK-Baylor and Chip Cosby will join us from Phoenix to preview UofL-Florida.  It's going to be fun.  I promise.