Rivals Indiana (5) and Kentucky (4) are set to face off on Saturday night, with a Sweet 16 berth on the line.
Indiana reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament by trouncing Chattanooga (12) 99-74, while Kentucky throttled Stony Brook (13) 85-77.
Saturday's matchup in Des Moines will be the 57th time the two squads have met, and the first since the 2012 NCAA Tournament, when Kentucky (1) ousted Indiana (4) 102-90 in the Sweet 16.
Earlier that season, the unranked Hoosiers shocked the No. 1 Wildcats at the buzzer with a Christian Watford 3-pointer at Assembly Hall.
The two teams played each other in every regular season from 1969 through 2011, but an ongoing dispute between the programs has led to the programs refusing to schedule one another.
No players on either team have been involved in the rivalry, but the head coaches, Tom Crean of Indiana and John Calipari of Kentucky, have coached several games of the rivalry, with Calipari holding a 3-1 edge since joining Kentucky in 2009.
"I think both sides know how each other feels," says Crean. "As a fan of college basketball, somebody that has a lot of respect for [Kentucky], I hope that at some point in time we can get something going again."
As for the game itself, with each team having less than 48 hours to prepare for the crucial contest, the teams are finding ways to best prepare in the limited time they have.
"Since we only have two days, we're still watching a lot of film, trying to get as much film in as we can," says Indiana freshman forward OG Anunoby. "I'm sure we're going to have to ad-lib, but we do that every game."
The current iterations of both squads average around 80 points per game, are ranked in the top 14 in the latest Associated Press poll, and feature first and second team USA Today All-Americans (Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray for Kentucky, Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell for Indiana).
Although no players on either roster have taken part in an Indiana-Kentucky contest, current Hoosiers understand its history.
"Growing up in Indiana I've obviously watched the games, every single time they've played," says Indiana junior forward Collin Hartman, an Indianapolis native. "[Kentucky is] always highly talented and highly athletic. They get out and run and block shots and score at a high rate."
Senior guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell is an Indianapolis native as well, but says he doesn't want the restoration of the 92-year-old long rivalry to become a distraction in itself.
"I've gotten like 20 questions about the rivalry game," Ferrell says. "I don't want [my teammates] or myself thinking into that. We definitely don't want to go out and be timid because we're playing Kentucky. We want to go out and play like we have all year. We've definitely played a lot of hard games in the Big Ten, against Iowa and Michigan especially, so I feel like we're ready for this moment."
When Ferrell suits up Saturday, he will be starting in his 136th collegiate game, more than any player in program history. No player in the history of Indiana University basketball has dished more assists than Ferrell's 625, and only six have scored more than him (1,943 points).
Ferrell is also the only player on the roster to have previously won an NCAA Tournament game as a Hoosier (senior Max Bielfeldt won two NCAA Tournament games as a Michigan Wolverine). In 2013, Ferrell's freshman year, Indiana (1) reached their second consecutive Sweet 16 before being upset by Syracuse (4).
The 2013 Hoosiers accrued 29 victories and won the Big Ten in part because of contributions from current NBA players Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller. Ferrell intends to use lessons he learned from that squad to propel this year's squad even further.
"[The 2013 Indiana team] always played for each other, and I think [this year's team] is starting to realize that just a little bit more," Ferrell says. "[This team] is not there quite yet, but I think they're realizing, especially now at this point where it's win or go home. So if we get that idea of playing with one another like the team I played with my freshman year, we can make a good run."
Tipoff between Indiana (26-7) and Kentucky (27-8) is scheduled for 5:15 eastern Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena.
