LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) Georgetown College, like most other college basketball programs in the state, long has operated in the shadows of Kentucky.<br>
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Now Georgetown, a perennial NAIA power, will have a chance to test itself against its neighbor about 15 miles away, as the Tigers play at Kentucky in an exhibition game Wednesday.<br>
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``It's as big as it gets,'' Georgetown coach Happy Osborne said of the chance to play at Rupp Arena. ``It's the mecca of college basketball. We're the first NAIA school that gets the opportunity. They didn't have to let it be us. It's a big honor.''<br>
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The game will be the final tuneup for the ninth-ranked Wildcats before they open the regular season on Sunday against South Dakota State in the first round of the Guardians Classic.<br>
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Kentucky played its first exhibition game Nov. 2, beating NCAA Division II Northern State (S.D.) 80-51. The game against Georgetown should be particularly helpful, Kentucky coach Tubby Smith said, because the Tigers like to play at a fast pace, which is what the coach has said Kentucky would like to do this season as well.<br>
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Compared to Northern State, ``we'll be playing against a much more athletic team and probably a better outside-shooting team in Georgetown,'' Smith said. ``We can see what we need to improve in when it comes to playing up-tempo basketball.''<br>
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Smith said he might juggle his lineup from the Northern State game center Lukasz Obrzut, forward Bobby Perry and guards Joe Crawford, Patrick Sparks and Rajon Rondo started against the Wolves but declined to offer specifics.<br>
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Kentucky began scheduling lower-division schools for exhibition games last year, when the Wildcats played Northern Kentucky and Kentucky Wesleyan, a pair of Division II teams. Smith said he's glad to give the smaller schools a chance to enjoy the limelight and praised Osborne as ``one of the best coaches at that level and in college basketball.''<br>
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Georgetown, which won the 1998 NAIA title, finished 27-6 last season, falling in the quarterfinals of the NAIA tournament. The Tigers, who already have played and won three regular-season games, were No. 5 in the NAIA preseason rankings.<br>
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Two seasons ago, Georgetown played regular-season games against Division I foes Florida State, Pittsburgh, Wagner and Murray State. The Tigers went 0-4 but took then-No. 18 Pitt to the wire before losing 79-74.<br>
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``Every time we've played against superior competition it's helped our team,'' Osborne said. ``The thing that you've got to do is go in and play as hard as you can, just like any other game, and see what happens.''<br>
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Kentucky players said they're not particularly knowledgeable about Georgetown, but they expect the Tigers to provide good competition.<br>
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``They want to beat us, of course, like any other team would,'' junior forward Rekalin Sims said. ``I'm sure they've been jacked up for the last couple of weeks. This is one of their tougher games this year, I'm sure.''<br>
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(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
