LEXINGTON, Ky. _ When asked about Kentucky's objective going into Sunday's exhibition game against Georgetown College, freshman Keion Brooks Jr. seemed to get to the heart of what will matter this season. "Show that we're tough enough," he said Friday. "Coach (John Calipari) believes that could be the only thing standing in our way from doing something special."
Brooks, a slender 6-foot-7 and 205 pounds, did not exclude himself from the task of playing with toughness.
"I might not look it, but I'm going to play hard," he said. "I'm going to go out and compete every possession."
When asked what he meant by not looking tough, Brooks said, "Look at me. You can tell I'm a skinny kid ... . I don't look like a bruiser, do I?"
Calipari defined toughness as something more than shoving an opponent or having a body bulging with muscles. He cited mental toughness to stand up to the opponent's shoves and being mentally alert when fatigued. "As much mental toughness as it is physical," he said.
Seeking an opponent to box out rather than take an impeded path to the basket when a shot is taken.
Brooks dismissed the notion of an NAIA opponent possibly making a show of toughness reveal Kentucky as a bully rather than a tough team.
"That's not for us to worry about ...," he said. "They're still a good team. Why should we worry about looking like a bully or a tough guy?"
However, Calipari acknowledged one concern with trying to make the Kentucky team rougher around the edges. He voiced his concern in the form of a question.
"What is the ball you're juggling?" he asked reporters. The answer was the risk of injury. This is a Kentucky team that has two players sidelined _ Dontaie Allen and Zan Payne _ and a baseball pitcher (6-9 Ben Jordan) filling in at practice.
"Nine (healthy) scholarship players," Calipari said. "Go ahead. Two (more) get hurt. You can't even have a warm-up line.
Of course, Georgetown College has its own objectives.
The Tigers return three fifth-year seniors from a team that won the NAIA national championship last season. Georgetown College expects to be good again this season.
But coach Chris Briggs, a former manager for Kentucky's program, is under no illusions about Sunday's exhibition game against UK.
"That's a little different story," Briggs said. "We'll see them on Sunday what we'll not see, obviously, for the rest of the year other than when we sit down and watch on ESPN."
Briggs spoke of a single objective for his team.
"We're not going into it too crazy and think we're going to go in there and do something," he said. "We just want to play well and try to take away their transition. The only shot we got at not getting killed is to try to take away their transition and try to keep them off the glass. It's much easier for me to say that than for us to do that."
Whether or not Georgetown makes Kentucky play in the half-court, Briggs mentioned three more basic goal for his team:
_ Compete.
_ Put on a good show.
_ Help Kentucky prepare for the season, which begins Nov. 5 against preseason No. 1 Michigan State.
Georgetown's three fifth-year seniors are point guard Eljay Cowherd (whom Briggs described as a "bulldog"), shooting guard Jacob Conway ("can really get hot") and forward Chris Coffey ("relentless energy" and "our guy to throw lobs to"). The three are from Kentucky: In order, Bardstown, Hustonville and Louisville.
"We've got good leadership," Briggs said, "guys that know what it takes to win at our level."
