The Indianapolis Star

Indiana basketball coach Mike Davis has faced Kentucky only twice in his short tenure as the Hoosiers' coach.

Both games have been memorable - for all the wrong reasons.

Following the first meeting in 2000, Davis, who at the time was Indiana's interim coach, claimed, "I'm not the man for this job," after the Hoosiers exhibited a lackluster effort in an 88-74 loss to the Wildcats.

Last season, Davis was quoted as saying, "I hate Kentucky," on his weekly radio show prior to the game. Wildcats coach Tubby Smith made photo copies of Davis' remarks and handed them out to his team at its pregame meal. Kentucky won 66-52.

This year, as No. 6 Indiana (8-0) prepares to face No. 18 Kentucky (5-2) today at Freedom Hall, Davis has been especially careful not to say anything controversial.

He has gone to the other extreme.

"I love Kentucky," Davis said when the two teams were together last month in Hawaii for the Maui Invitational. "There's no school I'd rather play. They have a great program and a great tradition."

The Hoosiers are 8-0, just four wins shy of posting their first unbeaten preconference season since 1989-90.

Victory No. 9 will be particularly difficult because it comes against a Kentucky team that was too athletic for Indiana last season.

And the Wildcats are expected to get a boost today with the return of junior point guard Cliff Hawkins, who missed the first seven games for academic reasons. Hawkins averaged 7.1 points for Kentucky last season, but he was impressive against Indiana, scoring 17 points.

"(Cliff) bring us an excellent ballhandler in the backcourt and has great defensive skills, which is where we've been struggling," Smith said. "The area in which Cliff will help us the most is on defense, where he will inject the most energy into our team."

Smith said Hawkins won't start but should play.

As for Indiana, Davis is still looking for the Hoosiers to play "a great game."

"I'm looking for a game where we can shoot 50 percent from the field and defensively not give up any second or third shots the way we've given them up this year," Davis said. "We play well in transition on defense, but the problem I have is giving up offensive rebounds."

Most of all, Davis is hoping for a better effort from his team than in the past two games against Kentucky.

"We just didn't have guys out there fighting," Davis said. "It's always the game before Christmas and after finals, and it's hard to get the guys to concentrate for 40 minutes. They kind of had their way with our guys last year."