LEXINGTON, Ky. - Any suspense surrounding today's Mercer-Kentucky game may well be over 10 minutes before tipoff.
That's when coaches must submit their starting lineups, and when Kentucky coach Tubby Smith will settle the question of whether his son Saul remains the Wildcats' starting shooting guard.
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MERCER AT UK
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When: 8 p.m. today
Where: Rupp Arena (23,000), Lexington
Records: UK 1-0,
Mercer 0-2
TV: Ch. 64
Radio: WSAI-AM (1530); WNKR-FM (106.5)
BY THE NUMBERS
1: UK's national ranking in the first Jeff Sagarin computer ratings, released Monday
76: Number of years since these teams last met. UK beat Mercer in their only two meetings, in 1921 and '22
6: The number of games UK plays in 12 days in November, the most games ever played by a UK team during the month
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The contest itself seems unlikely to offer any such intrigue. Mercer is winless, having already lost by 35 at Georgia and by 16 at Winthrop. No. 4 Kentucky is 1-0 after a 99-64 win over Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday night, and has won 14 straight games dating to last February, including last season's national title game.
Asked Wednesday what incentive he had to schedule the Bears, Tubby Smith said, "We've got to play 26 games. Certainly, we need to find out where we are early in the year and know what we need to work on . . . I'm thinking I've got too many tough teams on my schedule to fill."
Smith said he takes each opponent as simply that - another opponent. "That's who we're competing against," he said. "All I see is how I'm going to help my guys get better. How am I going to make my team better?"
The day after Saul Smith shot 0-for-5 from the field and was replaced at the start of the second half by freshman Tayshaun Prince, Tubby Smith declined to address his son's status as a starter, saying he doesn't pay much attention to those issues.
"My starters earn the job every day," he said. "If they don't, they won't start."
Prince, a 6-foot-8 high school All-America from Southern California, was impressive in his college debut, playing 19 minutes, scoring 10 points - six of them on a pair of three-pointers - and commiting no turnovers.
With Jamaal Magloire, Ryan Hogan and Myron Anthony set to sit out the final games of suspensions for offseason problems, the rest of the Wildcats' starting lineup should remain the same as against Eastern: Michael Bradley at center, coming off a career-high 13 points; Scott Padgett and Heshimu Evans at forward; and Wayne Turner at the point.
"We can't ever take a team lightly," Saul Smith said. "They're going to bring their 'A' game here because of who we are."
