[Stardust]

NEW ORLEANS, LA. — Returning to Louisiana to take on LSU in today’s Southeastern Conference quarterfinals must feel for the top-ranked University of Kentucky Wildcats a little like coming back to where they grew up.

The last time the teams met, about an hour down the road in Baton Rouge on Jan. 28, it turned out to be a turning point for UK. Coach John Calipari’s team finally heeded what he’d been pleading for weeks. The Cats took a team’s best punch — almost literally — and answered with a knockout blow of their own.

The Tigers trailed by just two points with 2:39 to go in the first half, using a bruising approach to try to disrupt a young UK squad, but the Cats clobbered LSU the rest of the way and won by 24. For more than a month leading up to that game, Calipari had harped on his team’s need to “negate physical play” with a tough, aggressive effort of its own.

That day against the Tigers, Kentucky got 27 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and two steals from sophomore forward Terrence Jones, whose season to that point had been something of a disappointment.

“It was great,” Calipari said afterward. “That’s the guy I want. That’s the guy people want to see. That’s the guy people want to play with and coach.”

Perhaps more notably that afternoon, LSU attempted to pummel star freshman Anthony Davis and his wiry, 6-foot-11, 220-pound frame into submission. He was the victim of several hard fouls, one blow to the face and an egregious flagrant foul when the Tigers’ Malcolm White yanked Davis down hard from behind on a fast break.

Davis stayed down for a long time and White was ejected. But as he did all day, Davis eventually picked himself off the court and kept playing. He finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and two steals.

“By getting up, he shows that he has the courage to do what he needs to do,” Calipari said that day.

The Wildcats (30-1) can expect more of the same — minus the cheap shots, the Tigers say — in today’s rematch. LSU (18-13) has plenty of big bodies to throw at the Cats, most notably former McDonald’s All American Johnny O’Bryant III, a 6-9, 262-pound bruiser who lit up Arkansas for 18 points and 11 rebounds in just 22 minutes of the Tigers’ 70-54 first-round win Thursday in the New Orleans Arena.