It’s been an offseason priority for head coach John Calipari to differentiate this year’s team from last year’s squad.In a roundtable interview with reporters more than a month ago, Calipari described the comparison as unfair.”The biggest thing is we’re not playing last year’s team,” Calipari said. “We’re playing against ourselves. How good can we be? I want them to think about winning every game, and the only way you do that is how you prepare. Create a swagger through hard work, which they are. I also want them to understand, and I’ve already said it to them, we’re not worried about last year. Last year is done.”But no matter what Kentucky does or doesn’t do this year and no matter how much Calipari and the coaches try to quiet the comparisons, it comes with the territory of playing in front of the Kentucky fan base. When one highly touted freshman class follows another freshman class that went 35-3, advanced to the Elite Eight and had five players (including veteran Patrick Patterson) drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft for the first time in NBA history, comparisons are going to happen. It’s only natural for fans, media and even the players to compare. Earlier in the year, Calipari admitted the comparisons might be made.”Outsides of Kentucky they know there’s no way they can be as good as they were a year ago,” Calipari said. “They just lost too much. At Kentucky, (fans think) they’re going to be better than last year and they’re going to win by 30.” It’s human nature to compare and contrast upon what people know and have seen.But at Thursday’s media day, Calipari changed his tune a bit and said he hopes the UK fan base doesn’t associate the two teams with one another.”Anybody that’s compared to that group of kids, you’re going to be on the short end, so I don’t think our fans are going to compare,” Calipari said. “The great thing about the fans here, I think they just want to see how good these guys can be. How quickly can they come together? It’s not fair to anybody to compare one guy.”As Calipari said, for as talented as Brandon Knight, Enes Kanter, Terrence Jones and all the freshmen are, they aren’t John Wall and Eric Bledsoe. DeMarcus Cousins isn’t walking through that door anymore.”We have no one that even remotely looks like DeMarcus Cousins in March,” Calipari said. “And I’m not talking about DeMarcus in November. (There is) no one remotely like him. We’re a different team.”Before this year’s team can even think about comparing itself to last year’s bunch, Calipari said they will have to learn to come together.”Last year’s team, the biggest thing they did is they sacrificed for each other,” Calipari said. “Will this team come together and share the ball and do the things they have to do to be their brother’s keeper? Will you be your brother’s keeper? Will we have servant leadership which we had a year ago, where our leaders cared more about the team?”Physically and in terms of style, the two teams should be drastically different. After deciding to play a slowed-down version of the dribble-drive last year, one that featured a post-heavy game with Cousins, Calipari isn’t quite sure how they will play this season.He said he think this year’s team will be more dribble-drive heavy, but he hasn’t ruled out any possibilities. It will all depend on how the team reacts. “We are a better shooting team this year,” junior guard DeAndre Liggins said. “Last year we shot the ball good at times but not at times when we needed to shoot the ball well. We’re not that big. Coach Cal wants us to try to pump fake, cut back door sometimes and more of the dribble-drive this year.”One thing Calipari truly believes this season is that this team will lose early in the year – but for the good.”This is one of those teams that I look at that needs to get beat up a little bit early so they can figure out that everybody’s game is a Super Bowl,” Calipari said.Last year’s crop of freshmen came in with a certain type of swagger, as Liggins described it.”They were like, ‘We’re read y to do this. Let’s go,’ ” Liggins said. “This year’s freshmen are kind of laid back and like ‘Wow, this is what I’ve got to do.’ Once they hit the first game, they’ll realize how it is and know what they have to do.”But that’s when the comparisons to last year’s team will really heat up. The first time UK doesn’t win by 20 or adversity doesn’t roll over smoothly, people will point to how last year’s group handled things.And as 18- and 19-year-old kids, how does Enes Kanter not compare himself to Cousins? How does Knight not try to follow the unmatchable act of Wall (dance, drink and all)?”I can’t focus on John,” Knight said. “He was great here. He had a great one year here and he’s a great player, but the most I can do is focus on myself and try to get better and try to win games for Kentucky.”That’s the type of mentality Calipari hopes all of his players embrace. Calipari wants the players to be themselves, not people they are not capable of becoming.”I don’t need you to be anybody besides Doron (Lamb),” Calipari said. “Now, I need a better version of that, but that’s all I need you to be. Be who you are.”Quite frankly, when it comes to the Knight-Wall comparisons, there isn’t much to compare.”He likes to push the ball a lot,” Knight said. “I didn’t really push the ball a lot in high school. I kind of relied more on my jump shot than he does. He loves getting to the basket, which is something I’m trying to work on. It seems like he’s trying to work on his shooting, and I’m trying to work on what he’s good at. We’re kind of opposite.”Except at the end of games. When the game is on the line, Knight said he wants the ball in his hands.”Pressure is a good thing,” Knight said. “I think it pushes you to be your best and pushes you to do the best you can do. The ball has been in my hands before in high school and I feel like I can do the same thing at this level as long as I continue to work hard, as long as I continue to be comfortable with my surroundings and my teammates, and as long as they can trust me to be in a situation like that.”But as far as Calipari and his team are concerned, that’s where the similarities begin and end. This is a new year with new players, new roles and new expectations. “We’ll never be last year’s team,” Liggins said, “but we’re going to be good.”