By Kyle Arensdorf

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Whenever the Cats don’t perform well against lesser teams, head coach John Calipari has one standard answer.

He explains that every team that comes into Rupp Arena to face the No. 1 team in the nation looks at it like it’s their ‘Super Bowl.’

Calipari is proven right with every first-half struggle the Cats face this season.

And he was right again Sunday when UK Basketball faced a Providence team that was unafraid of the Cats’ length inside and had a game plan to slow down UK’s potent offense.

“We came here to execute a game plan,” Providence head coach Ed Cooley said after the game. “If you told me yesterday that we would come in here and hold this team to 58 points, I’d tell you we’d win the game.”

The Friars were successful by switching between a man-to-man defense and a zone defense in the first half, holding the Cats to just 26 points at halftime.

“They did what teams are going to try to do,” Calipari said. “They’re going to try to move the ball, they’re going to go into the shot clock and sag into man or a zone. (They played) like how everyone else is going to play us.”

Providence was able to limit the Cats to a mediocre offensive showing, holding the Cats under 50 percent from the field and just 2-for-7 from 3-point range.

Despite UK’s season-low 58 points, Providence still lost by a convincing 20 points, which is a testament to the Cats’ unflappable defense.

UK didn’t allow a Providence field goal for the final 7:41 of the first half, and after making seven of its first 10 shots, Providence shot a dismal 4-for-29 the rest of the way.

One player’s defense in particular grabbed the attention of both coaches — freshman point guard Tyler Ulis.

“Very rarely do you see a guy walk in and just change the game,” Calipari said. “Like, change the whole flow of it. And (Ulis) did that today.”

Cooley even called him the “key” to the Cats’ victory.

“You couldn’t get into an offensive flow,” he said. “I thought his ball pressure when (UK) made their run was the key to this entire game.”

Ulis didn’t have a spectacular offensive game (scoring only six points on 3-for-6 shooting), but came up with three steals at opportune times and played lock-down defense on Providence’s Kris Dunn, who had 10 turnovers on the day.

“You’re almost pushing off to keep this kid away from you, and then it makes us more confident defenders behind him,” Calipari said. “So now we’re taking some chances.”