Perry Stevenson called it a “new season” on Friday. Mark Krebs predicted it would be as physical as the Louisville game. John Calipari said Kentucky could get upset if it didn’t match Georgia’s intensity.Heed the warning.Conference play opened Saturday in Rupp Arena with a rude awakening. The message? The march through the Southeastern Conference won’t be as easy as the waltz through the non-conference. Kentucky defeated the Georgia Bulldogs 76-68 in front of a season-high crowd of 24,342 fans at Rupp Arena, but the Cats needed a late 11-3 run to close out last year’s SEC East last-place team. “I guess that’s welcome to the SEC,” head coach John Calipari said. If you consider a punch in the mouth at the opening of a door a welcoming.The Cats are going to compete for an SEC title. In fact, they’re going to be the hands-on favorite to win an unprecedented 43rd league championship.But before you start designing those undefeated T-shirts and compiling highlights for your UK YouTube video, remember, this isn’t last year’s conference.Heed the SEC.”It was real physical,” said freshman guard Eric Bledsoe, who finished with a team-high-tying 17 points. “It was kind of like the Louisville game.”In fact, it looked eerily similar. UK-Georgia was another slugfest down low, one characterized by poor shooting, turnovers and free-throw shooting. That’s conference ball, and now the young guns like freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins know.Cousins spent most of Saturday’s bruising slugfest with two and three defenders draped on his arms, but for the second game in a row he helped push UK past its opponent with a dominating second-half effort. The first-year star rebounded from a slow first half for 12 big second-half points. His free throws down the stretch were a key part of an 11-3 run at the end of the game that helped seal the seesaw affair (12 lead changes and nine ties).More importantly, he kept his cool after a posterizing dunk in the first half and a physical second half. Cousins’ composure led to three Bulldogs fouling out in the last 10 minutes.”All of them should have fouled out,” Cousins said. Cousins was asked after the game if he should wear his Peter Parker-like glasses to prevent from getting fouled so much. “If I wore these and we played Georgia, these would be in two (pieces),” Cousins said.He might want to think about keeping them in the case for the rest of league play. It will get no easier against an improved league. The SEC returned a bevy of experienced players this year, turning a much-maligned three-bid NCAA Tournament conference into a possible five- or six-bid league. Georgia is a first-hand example of that improvement.After struggling to 12 wins a season ago, the Bulldogs have already pulled off wins against No. 20 Georgia Tech – who toppled No. 5 Duke earlier Saturday – and Illinois. Saturday the Bulldogs gave the No. 3 team as much as any other team, including Louisville, North Carolina and Connecticut has all year long.”It’s what happens in the league, and that’s at home,” Calipari said. “I can’t even imagine what’s going to happen when we get out on the road.”It will likely be a battle night in and night out. If UK is going to win a league title and maybe go undefeated, it’s going to earn every win. Freshman guard John Wall, who struggled Saturday with an illness, won’t always be there to bail out the Cats.If the first-year players didn’t know that before Saturday, they do now.”I think it (was an eye-opener) for all of us,” said junior forward Patrick Patterson, who tallied 17 points and six rebounds Saturday. “Those who think that what we have done is going to carry over to league play, (they know better now). You want to continue to play hard and you want to continue battling, but you know that the competition, you’re going to have a target on your back. Every team in the conference is playing well, and whenever they play you they’re going to play their best game.”So Kentucky is going to have to continue to take it up a notch. Players will have to continue to improve and step up in key conference situations like Saturday’s.”One of the things I was looking for from the guys on the bench was their fight,” Calipari said.Having been through the rigors of conference play, DeAndre Liggins came to play with his gloves on.The sophomore guard pitched in a critical 14 minutes of play, scoring six points and totaling three steals. He brought energy in the first half when UK was lacking fire.Calipari is hoping Liggins, who was benched for the first nine games of the season for undisclosed reasons, will become the poster child for handling conference adversity.”The tentativeness, the softness, the ‘I got screened, I didn’t hear, I’m sorry,’ it’s too late now, man” Calipari said. “We’re halfway through a season. You’ve got to ball. You’ve got to go out there and fight and compete.” Because if Georgia is supposed to be a cellar-dwelling team, what’s that say about the rest of the league and the fight the Cats have ahead?”This is a great league,” Georgia head coach Mark Fox said. “I think it’s pretty balanced. Members of the media voted us unanimously as the last-place team. If you guys are right, then this league is pretty balanced.”Saturday was win No. 1 of the new season. Expect 15 more battles.