Kentucky-Louisville is usually Ali-Frazier. Saturday afternoon looked more like a backyard brawl.When the Cats and the Cardinals meet on the hardwood, we know the fundamentals are usually out the door. But Saturday’s game?Sheesh. Bring your mouth guard, boxing gloves, bandages and towels. How about some ice for the slugfest? Actually, no need to – the two teams were plenty cold without it, especially in the first half.The 2010 Dream Game lived up to its emotional billing in every way possible. Elbows were thrown, technical fouls were assessed and a fight nearly broke out. And that was just in the first 45 seconds. Kentucky defeated Louisville 71-62 on Saturday afternoon in front of a Rupp Arena record crowd of 24,449 blue-clad fans. The win snapped a two-game losing streak to the Cardinals.Kentucky coach John Calipari has been through Memphis-Tennessee, Memphis-Louisville and Massachusetts-Temple – a game Calipari said you had to go through metal detectors just to get into – but he might have a new appreciation for one of the sport’s best rivalries. “This start was physical, but neither team was going to give an inch,” Calipari said. “You can come out and do that bravado (but) it wasn’t working in this game. Too much talent on both sides and too much pride on both sides.”Pride is what UK-U of L is all about. And the stakes to claim bragging rights have never been higher.With Louisville’s coach mired in an offseason of personal controversy, a new head coach (and Pitino rival) at the helm of Kentucky and the sport’s winningest program seemingly back on the map, emotions filled the Battle of the Bluegrass from the opening tip. At times, maybe for the worse.On the game’s opening possession, three fouls were whistled and freshman Eric Bledsoe was yanked to the pine for jawing with a Cardinal. Things were just heating up.On the following possession, an altercation – and nearly a fight -broke out when Cardinal Jared Swopshire and Kentucky freshman DeMarcus Cousins hit the floor for a loose ball. Cousins landed on Swophshire while trying to pull the ball away. In the process, an elbow – inadvertent or not – checked Swopshire just below the chin.”I was just going for the loose ball,” Cousins said of the scrum. “I never knew I did it.”Swopshire’s teammate retaliated once Cousins got up with a two-hand push to Cousins. Whistles blew, players jawed, the crowd booed and three technical fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct were handed down.Chaos – more appropriately, the UK-U of L rivalry – was underway. Duke-North Carolina? Texas-Oklahoma? Cincinnati-Xavier? I’ll take Kentucky-Louisville. The rivalry is as alive and as nasty as ever.”Coach Cal warned us,” said Cousins, who admitted last week that the first-year players maybe didn’t appreciate the rivalry as much as they should. “We saw their tape and we saw how they pushed in the back and did all that, so I was expecting a physical game.”It started with the technicals and it never let up. The teams combined for 51 fouls and five technicals in a brutal, physical, Ultimate Fighting-like brawl. Kentucky critics will be quick to point to Cousins’ elbow as sure-fire offense for an ejection, but Dream Game locals would understand it’s what’s at the heart of the UK-U of L rivalry.”It was intense going through a game like this,” said junior forward Patrick Patterson, who finished with 17 points. “The rivalry in this game made it so much more important. Not just the rivalry between the teams but the history that comes along with it.”For better or worse, it’s about hatred.”Did you see how the game was played?” Calipari said. “There were things, (players), grabbing, kicking, grabbing, punching, eyeball dragging, fish hooks, nose drags. There was everything in the game.”Execution, at least early on, might have been the only thing lacking. As emotions boiled, focus was lost. After UK stormed to an 11-1 lead, both teams hit a wall, one they helped build brick by brick.Louisville failed to a hit a field goal until Samardo Samuels tipped in a ball with 10:54 left in the first half. The Cardinals missed their first 14 shots, made just one of their first 19 and finished the first half 5-of-29 from the field.Kentucky wasn’t much better. The Cats took a 27-19 halftime lead to the locker room on 10-of-30 shooting, including 6-of-12 from the free-throw line, leaving the door open for U of L to come back. For the first time this season, freshman phenom John Wall was held in check, amassing more turnovers (four) than points (three). But when things are at its ugliest and fighters start to stumble – which came when Louisville clawed its way back to its first and only lead at 42-41 – the best ones always get off the mat. And Wall did exactly that. Whether it was the physicality of Louisville, the suffocating pressure or the eyes of the nation weighing down on him, Wall had a rare off-afternoon. But once the sun set outside, Wall made sure the night was his.A tough layup in traffic by Wall with less than 10 minutes to go gave the Cats the lead back. The freshman phenom followed it with an 18-foot jumper and two free throws. His six straight points gave UK a five-point lead, and the Cats never looked back.”I wasn’t really frustrated but I wish I would have made some of the shots I got when they were open,” Wall said. “They did a great job of defending me. I was just trying to get my teammates involved. We got a good lead but in the second half we needed to make a couple of plays. I got the opportunity to get the basket and hit some open shots and some free throws, so it was all good.”Louisville head coach Rick Pitino used the untouchable names of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in the same breath of Wall when he talked about Wall’s impact.”The egos of young people today are so out of wack,” Pitino said. “It’s national television and everybody just wants to show up John Wall. He just relaxed. He did his job. We were turning him over and he didn’t get frustrated by it. He got back in the game and made the big plays.His demeanor of ‘It’s OK, the game can be on the line and I’ll show my greatness,’ I really appreciate that.”As always, UK-U of L was enjoyable to watch. It was nasty, ugly and sometimes just downright out of hand, but it’s the essence of the rivalry.

“They needed to (be physical) because if they didn’t they were going to get punked today,” Calipari said. “You better be ready to go because there was bumping going on before the game even started. You better have been jacked up and ready to go. But I thought we handled it well. … We won a ball game. We never really lost our composure. I can hear all the stuff (already). If you weren’t in this building you wouldn’t know.”You wouldn’t know that the melee on the hardwood is what makes this state, these teams and this state so special. It’s raw emotions and pride, even if at times it isn’t pretty to watch.Louisville will bounce back, because let’s face it, it’s a great basketball program led by one of the all-time great coaches. But on this afternoon and in this special season, UK was the last one standing.Even if it was just a backyard brawl.