ST. LOUIS — Kentucky’s degree of difficulty may be ratcheted up a few levels.
The eighth-seeded Wildcats could be without starting point guard Andrew Harrison for Sunday’s highly anticipated NCAA Tournament Midwest region third round contest against No. 1 Wichita State.
Harrison suffered a right elbow injury in the final seconds of Friday’s 56-49 win over No. 9 Kansas State. Harrison was expected to practice on Saturday and said he plans to play, though he admitted to being in “some pain.”
Kentucky coach John Calipari said the team is preparing as if he won’t be able to go, so it will be ready in case that happens.
If Harrison is unable to play, Calipari said he could turn to his twin brother, Aaron, the team’s starting shooting guard. Another option is backup Jarrod Polson, a senior.
Aaron, however, said he expects his brother to be in the starting lineup.
“I’ve seen him play through concussions and pulled muscles and stuff,” Aaron Harrison said. “I know its his right elbow, so we’ll have to see how he is. If he’s able to play, he’ll play.”
The Kentucky-Wichita State showdown will feature an intriguing matchup between two of the country’s elite forwards — Kentucky freshman Julius Randle and Wichita State senior Cleanthony Early — who are both NBA prospects.
While Randle, who is built like a defensive end, is at his best throwing around his sculpted body in the paint and finishing through contact, Early relies on finesse and can step out and hit 3-pointers.
They are both coming off exceptional openers. Randle scored 19 points and added 15 rebounds in a 56-49 win over No. 9 Kansas State, and Early scored 19 of his 23 points in the first half of a 64-37 shellacking of No. 16 Cal-Poly.
“I saw some film of him. He’s a pretty good player,” Randle said of Early.
That doesn’t mean the matchup adds any significant for Randle.
“I take every game as a challenge,” the likely lottery pick said. “It doesn’t matter who it is.”
Stanford star Chasson Randle’s 23-point performance in a 58-53 upset of No. 7 New Mexico didn’t impressive Kansas freshmen Andrew Wiggins and Wayne Selden Jr. very much.
The two Jayhawks didn’t seem to know much about the junior shooting guard, the second-leading scorer in the Pac-12 at 18.9 points per game, even giggling between themselves after being repeatedly asked about him.
Kansas coach Bill Self said it wasn’t a sign of disrespect. He merely had not gone over the scouting report with his players at the time of the press conference.
“If you want to know anything about him, you can certainly ask me,” Self said. “The kid can do a lot of things. … So certainly our guys will be very, very aware of them.”