New-look Kentucky begins title defense against Maryland

• Kentucky begins its national title defense against Maryland on Friday at Barclays Center.
• John Calipari's team is trying to replace its top six players from last year.
• Maryland guard Dez Wells was cleared to play after transferring from Xavier.

LEXINGTON, KY. — Although most college basketball teams ease into their schedules, one might expect the defending NCAA champion not to — unless that team is the forever-young University of Kentucky and it's trying to replace the top six players from last season's squad. And yet the Wildcats, ranked third to start their title defense despite the heavy losses, will dive in head first Friday night against Maryland.

"I'd rather have a game or two under our belt before we played it," coach John Calipari said. "But the reality of it is this team is so young, let's learn right away: Here's where we are; here's where we're not."

UK, which could start three freshmen and two sophomores, none of whom started a game last season, will tackle the Terrapins in Brooklyn's brand-new, billion-dollar Barclays Center. The game is in prime time and will be televised on ESPN.

Calipari, whose team helped raise nearly a million dollars for victims of Superstorm Sandy during a two-hour telethon Wednesday night, noted that the storm caused a cancellation of the New York City Marathon.

"I was hoping they'd cancel this game," he joked. "But I guess we're going to have to go up there and play it."

Complicating matters, Calipari said point guard Ryan Harrow and shooting guard Julius Mays are questionable for tonight. Harrow has "some sort of flu or something," and Mays is recovering from a hyperextended knee he suffered in the team's final exhibition game Monday night. Both sat out Wednesday's practice.

The Wildcats already were working with just a seven-man rotation. Maryland, meanwhile, appears primed for a return to the NCAA Tournament after scratching its way to a 17-15 record last season. Second-year coach Mark Turgeon has infused the Terps with several talented newcomers, signing a consensus top-15 recruiting class and adding Xavier transfer Dez Wells.

Wells, a 6-foot-5 guard who recently won an NCAA appeal to become eligible immediately, was good enough to be courted by Calipari this past summer.

"He will make Maryland now legitimately one of those (tournament) teams," Calipari said. "They were good enough. They need that one guy."

Turgeon said Wells "gives every coach on our staff, including me, more confidence that we can be a good team."

The Terrapins, picked sixth in the Atlantic Coast Conference before Wells won his appeal, will also have a better answer for UK's size than the Cats' two diminutive exhibition opponents did. While UK at times uses three players 6-10 or taller — including twin towers Nerlens Noel and Willie Cauley-Stein — Division III Transylvania used only one player taller than 6-4 on Monday.

The Terps have six players 6-9 or taller, including 7-1 starting center Alex Len and 6-9 freshman Shaquille Cleare, one of four top-100 recruits who came to College Park in this last class.

"Obviously, Maryland's going to be a totally different team," Mays said. "Teams are going to be just as — maybe not as athletic, but they're going to be athletic like we are. … And obviously we're Kentucky, so they're going to come out and try to have their best game. We've got to be ready. It's not going to be a walk in the park."

But what if the Cats don't have Harrow and/or Mays? Calipari said the staff feels comfortable giving former walk-on guard Jarrod Polson significant minutes if needed. He said 6-7 junior guard Jon Hood, a former four-star recruit who missed last season with a knee injury, impressed in the last exhibition and could be a 3-point threat.

The coach also knows, however, that UK could take some lumps — and maybe losses — in the first two games. The Cats face Duke in the Georgia Dome next week.

"We'll see if we're ready to beat a basketball team," Calipari said. "I'm just not sure. They're going to have to show me. We haven't done much situational work — up eight, down eight, up three, down three. We just haven't had time to.

"They're going to press us some, and it's going to look ugly."

But Calipari's counterpart — and friend since he was an assistant at Kansas and Turgeon was a point guard there — is adept at managing early expectations, too.

"His team is a lot like mine. He isn't sure what he is going to get out of his young kids," Turgeon said. But he knows one troubling truth: Calipari and the Cats have reloaded with a fourth consecutive No. 1 recruiting class and are, question marks and all, double-digit favorites tonight.

"Kentucky is still rolling out players that we couldn't even get involved with," Turgeon said. "We need to be realistic."