The fun part of yesterday’s media extravaganza that was mostly miserable for one specific reason was the identical manner West Virginia and Kentucky went back and forth with one another. Kentucky, blessed with all its size and talent, said opponents can prepare all they want for what the Wildcats possess, but it doesn’t matter until they’re on the floor and see and feel what they watched on film.

They’re right.

And the Mountaineers, known for their tenacity and their pressure defense, said opponents can scout WVU on film and take comfort in experience and even success against pressing opponents, but it doesn’t matter until they’re on the floor and see and feel what they watched on film.

What drove me crazy about yesterday — and we’ll get to Daxter Miles in the live post — was that nobody was wrong, no matter how people tried to pull and parse the words. The Mountaineers believe they’ll win. Kentucky understands that, but disagrees. WVU thinks it an make a dent on the offensive glass, where teams have hurt Kentucky before. The Wildcats know they lead the nation in offensive rebound percentage, which is actualyl a more telling stat thatn WVU’s NCAA-best offensive rebounds per game. The Mountaineers don’t think Kentucky is a great offensive team. The Wildcats know WVU’s offensive numbers, as well as Kentucky’s elite level defensive numbers. So much ado about so little.

But let’s put the posturing aside. Let’s get the people who have watched film and seen Kentucky in person, who know the talking stops when the action starts.

“It’s tough to compare them to any other college team because of their length and athleticism,” said Cottrill, who lives about 12 miles from UK’s campus. “Those are two things you cannot teach. They cover up any holes they have in their defense and their bigs can guard a lot of guards. They don’t have too many weaknesses.”

Fulford is curious to see how West Virginia handles UK’s size. The Wildcats will play 6-foot-10 freshman Trey Lyles, 6-11 freshman Karl-Anthony Towns and 7-footer Willie Cauley-Stein at the same time.

“They’re a matchup nightmare at a couple of different positions,” Fulford said. “They can play Trey Lyles at the 3 and he’s 6-10. They do a really good job of posting him up, and they do a good job of disguising their matchups and how they’re going to post him up. They do a lot of creative things … and typically you’ve got a 3 guarding him. He’s probably their biggest matchup problem and he does a really good job of finding shooters.”

Fulford said it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Cauley-Stein at the top of the key guarding WVU point guard Juwan Staten at times.

“Their biggest advantage is on defense and how they can guard,” Fulford said. “They can put Willie Cauley-Stein on a point guard and he can guard them. He steps out and guards point guards. Most people think that’s an advantage (for the other team), well, you can attack him but he’s coming right along with you to block it.”

Cottrill was a witness to that defense in November’s matchup at Rupp Arena.

“They would switch the ball screens on me a few times and I’d get matched up with Cauley-Stein,” Cottrill said. “His unbelievable length helps him back off you and keep you in front but you still can’t shoot it because he is so long. It’s very hard to get separation, and he is very quick and a very good defender for his size.”