Matthew Mitchell has never changed his thoughts on the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry, but he has come to talk about it differently.He’s always seen UK-U of L as one of the biggest games on both teams’ schedule, a game deserving of hype and a big-time atmosphere. The difference now that he’s in his eighth season is he feels no need to try to convince anyone.”When I was younger – and hopefully I’m wiser than I was when I started out, I was also a different person – I said some bad things about the rivalry to try and get it spiced up and everything,” Mitchell said. “Over the years, you don’t have to do that anymore.” You see, UK and U of L have established themselves among the nation’s elite. The Wildcats and Cardinals are fixtures in the top 15, and that will be the case again on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET when the two teams face off at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center.”The players understand that it’s a big game on our side,” Mitchell said. “It’s a big game. I think that’s great that it’s a rivalry game and people get excited about it and I’m sure there is going to be a large crowd there, and so I think the games have been pretty tough.”There’s no reason to think that will change as UK (7-1) enters the latest matchup ranked No. 13, while U of L (7-0) is No. 7. The Cats have won the last three games played between the two teams.”I think it’s going to be an outstanding game,” Mitchell said. “I just want us to go over there, have our minds right and play real, real hard against what looks like a real fine basketball team that U of L has.” Louisville seemed likely to take a step back last season without star Shoni Schimmel, who graduated after a decorated career. Watching tape on the Cardinals, that’s not what Mitchell sees. “It’s a very, very strong basketball team with some great players that as usual, are very well coached,” Mitchell said. “Their performance last night vs. Iowa was extremely impressive.”Louisville dispatched the No. 22 Hawkeyes unceremoniously, taking a 23-point lead by halftime and finishing off an 86-52 win on Thursday. Senior Sara Hammond scored 19 points, while standout freshman and leading scorer Myisha Hines-Allen added 16 points.”This is nothing against Shoni, but after watching them (Thursday) night, that was one of the most impressive performances that I’ve seen from them in now eight years,” Mitchell said. “I was really impressed with how they played. They have a lot of different weapons.”Nine Cardinals play at least 13.5 minutes per game and four average double figures in scoring, including Hines-Allen, Hammond and freshman Mariya Moore, whom Mitchell called “legit.””They’re just really big and athletic and they played so aggressive,” Mitchell said. “They looked so cohesive and it was a very impressive performance to watch on tape this morning. It looked like they are really playing together. They are extremely explosive in transition, very disruptive on defense. They played a lot of man-to-man (Thursday) night and gave Iowa a tremendous amount of problems.”The Cats, of course, are perfectly capable of causing problems too.UK remains a work in progress, particularly in the post where Mitchell relies on three players who are playing their first college season, but the Cats have already taken down one top-10 opponent this season, Baylor. To duplicate the feat, Mitchell believes there’s a clear path for his team to follow.”I think intensity is going to be the main thing for us,” Mitchell said. “We can’t do a whole lot in two days as far as sharpening some of the things that we need to sharpen. There are some things that we’re doing well. We are running the floor well, and we have some speed and can get up and down the court and try and stress a team by tempo and pace. We are capable of that, and we are sure going to try to see if we can get that done and play to our strengths until we can really get sharp.”