Quick question: Just how good is Kentucky, anyway?The safe bet is very good. Very, very good. Like, national-title-contention good. And why not? John Calipari entered the 2016-17 season having wrangled together the nations No. 1 recruiting class, per ESPN RecruitingNation, in a year when No. 1 Harry Giles and No. 3 Jayson Tatum both chose to play at Duke.That was not easy to do, but done it was, and those dudes of the No. 1 class have hardly disappointed. Freshmen?DeAaron Fox, Malik Monk, Bam Adebayo?and Wenyen Gabriel are all on the floor more frequently than any Wildcats player except sophomore?Isaiah Briscoe. All but Gabriel -- who gets 20.4 minutes per game and is still the teams second-leading rebounder -- average double-figure points per game. Fox has been described (by his own coach, among others) as a left-handed?John Wall; Monk has more or less lived up to CoachCal.coms preseason appraisals; Adebayo has grabbed offensive rebounds, drawn fouls and dutifully protected the rim.The Wildcats enter the weekend ranked among the top 10 in offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency, per KenPom.com, something just two other teams can say. One of those teams is Kansas. The other is Kentuckys next opponent.And thats just a small portion of what makes No. 6 Kentucky vs. No. 7 North Carolina (5:45 p.m. ET, CBS) so fascinating. For months, this neutral-court matchup at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas -- not UCLAs cross-country visit, pfft -- was the one Wildcats fans had circled on their calendar (albeit in slightly less-bold ink than next weeks blood feud with Louisville). Now here we are, and those same fans are?wondering?-- unfairly --?whether Saturday is the moment Kentucky turns really good into a win over a really good team.Whats doubly exciting is that the Tar Heels are big, athletic and versatile, and they love to push the pace. Which is to say theyre coached by Roy Williams, and which, in a twist, matches up perfectly with this version of the Wildcats.Recent Kentucky teams, for all their success, have never willingly played at a Williams-level pace. Over seven seasons, Caliparis UK teams have averaged 67.1 (adjusted, per KenPom.com) possessions per game. This season, they average 75.9; their mean possession ends in 13.5 seconds, fourth-fastest in the country. Theyre flying with Fox-led fast breaks and rebound runouts and Briscoe open-court creativity. The results have been impressive -- even against UCLA, when UK scored 92 points in 83 possessions, only to find itself outdone by an even better, even faster offensive team.That is the question posed by Saturdays matchup in Las Vegas: Can Caliparis team, as athletic and talented and fast as it is, sustain this style? Are the Wildcats so good that it can work against a team such as UNC, which is designed from the ground up to do the exact same thing (and which is vastly more experienced than Kentucky)? Can the Wildcats do so while keeping the nations best offensive rebounding team off the boards? Are they good enough to do so? How good are they, anyway?Probably really good! But lets see how Saturday -- and, not for nothing, Wednesdays trip to the Yum! Center -- goes before we decide. Fair?Crossroads ClassicNo. 21 Notre Dame vs. No. 15 Purdue, Saturday, 2 p.m., ESPN2No. 18 Butler vs. No. 9 Indiana, Saturday, 5 p.m., BTNCollege basketballs recent vintage has yielded a bumper crop of nonconference events. Sometimes these events produce good basketball. Sometimes they have weird names. Sometimes they -- gasp -- even make money.Rarely, however, are these events so organically obvious that its a wonder they havent existed all along. The Crossroads Classic, which pairs Indianas four marquee college hoops programs, is the most notable exception.As easy as it is to overly romanticize the states love affair with basketball and to reduce a cultural touchstone to pat Jimmy Chitwood references, there are good reasons why you might. Frankly, there is no event in college basketball that manages to capture the culture of the state in which it is held quite like the Crossroads Classic. For one Saturday in December, fans of four different teams, from various corners of a basketball-obsessed geographic area, congregate in one arena -- in the same way they would for, say, the Indiana state high school basketball tournament, which fills the same number of seats in Bankers Life Fieldhouse every season as does the Crossroads Classic. Which is to say, all of them.Its an event so good that it feels as if its always been around. In fact, its only 6 years old. But however successful the idea of pairing Indiana, Butler, Notre Dame and Purdue in one doubleheader has been, its safe to say the basketball itself has probably never been better than it will be Saturday.All four teams are ranked in the top 25. Combined, they are 34-5 on the season. Indiana has toppled Kansas and North Carolina; Butler owns wins over Arizona and Cincinnati; Notre Dame and surprise star Bonzie Colson had Villanova on the ropes for 35 minutes last week; Purdue has the highest efficiency margin of all four.Indeed, no team has more on the line Saturday than the Boilermakers. A neutral-court matchup with Notre Dame -- or a neutral-court matchup at least until the Indiana fans show up -- is the first of Purdues remaining three nonconference games before Big Ten play and the only one with any redeeming résumé value. To date, Matt Painters team has looked generally excellent but failed to hold on against Villanova at home and lost a tight game to Louisville on the road. Analytically speaking, Purdue is obviously good. But above all else, the NCAA tournament selection committee cares about wins and losses, and this is the Boilermakers last chance to impress before conference play begins. (Oh, and by the way, Purdue has yet to win in the first five years of the Crossroads Classic. The Boilers would very much like for that to change.)Saturdays Indiana-focused basketball will be as good as it ever has been. Thats not really the point. In an era flush with nonconference doubleheaders, most of which contain almost zero thematic or cultural resonance, the on-court product at the Crossroads Classic could be garbage and still be pretty rad. Fortunately, the basketball will be good, too. Lonnie Shelton Jersey . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. Bob Rule Jersey . Didier Drogba gave away the penalty that put Senegal one goal away from a major upset, but the veteran striker will get another chance -- probably his last -- at the World Cup after Salomon Kalous injury-time strike sealed the Ivorians place in Brazil next year. https://www.supersonicsjerseys.com/1200s-xavier-mcdaniel-jersey-supersonics.html . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. Rod Thorn Jersey . -- Bobby Ryan helped the U. Eddie Johnson Jersey . Emery skated the length of the ice and fought an unwilling Holtby during the third period of the Flyers 7-0 loss Friday night in Philadelphia. He was given 29 penalty minutes, including a game misconduct. But Emery did not face even a disciplinary hearing with NHL senior vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan because rules 46. CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Ray Crossland and Montell Goodwin combined for 29 points as Eastern Illinois knocked off South Alabama 72-62 on Saturday to give the Jaguars their first defeat of the season.Crossland was 6 of 9 from the floor for 15 points and Goodwin hit 3 of 5 from long range for 14 points. Muusa Dama added 12 and had nine boards and Cornell Johnston chipped in 10 with eight assists.South Alabama, trailing 36-33 at the break, closed to 58-53 with 5:19 remaining in the game following a Shaq Calhouun layup.ddddddddddddHowever Dama and Patrick Muldoon hit back-to-back jumpers for a 62-53 lead with 4:05 left. The Jaguars got to within seven, 69-62, with 24 seconds remaining but Eastern Illinois made three free throws in the closing seconds to hold off the Jaguars.Ken Williams was 10 of 18 from the floor for 24 points for South Alabama (5-1). Nick Stover added 13 points. ' ' '