ATLANTA — John Calipari did everything short of move Kentucky’s practices this week to the fields at the Nutter Training Facility.After the Wildcats returned to Lexington losers of three of their last four regular-season games, Coach Cal removed all restrictions on physical play. Defenders were instructed to body teammates on drives and Calipari even joked he broke out helmets and pads.At the time, he didn’t know it would be LSU awaiting the Cats in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinal. It only worked out well that it ended up that way.”We did a lot of body-to-body contact, and all of our drills that we did, not just one or two, but everything from the beginning of practice to the end was all bodying each other like on drives or trapping in the post,” Willie Cauley-Stein said. “We knew if we had to play LSU that it was going to be a battle in the post.”Instead of balking at the physicality confronting them in practice — the same kind the Tigers used in splitting two tough regular-season matchups with UK — the Cats embraced it.”We had three days of football and they responded and they listened,” Calipari said. “They’re like, ‘Tell us what you want us to do,’ and then they carried it over on to the court.”It carried over in the form of a dominant 85-67 victory, one that sent UK (23-9) ahead into a semifinal showdown with third-seeded Georgia — who survived an Ole Miss buzzer-beating 3-point attempt to advance — at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.LSU (19-13) exerted its will inside for much of the 80 minutes of those first two matchups, but it was UK doing what it wanted in the interior on Friday night. The Cats bruised their way to a 48-32 edge on the glass, handing the Tigers their largest rebounding deficit of the season. UK outscored LSU 21-7 in second-chance points in the process.It all began with UK’s two centers, Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson.”They dominated the paint, really,” said James Young, who scored a game-high 21 points.The two centers’ stat lines don’t look drastically different, but the way they got there certain was.Cauley-Stein came off the bench to post his eight points and six rebounds, injecting defensive energy in a way only he can. His six blocks were his most in more than a month and many came in spectacular, athletic fashion.”My mindset was just go in, try to rebound everything, try to block everything, and sprint both sides of the floor,” Cauley-Stein said. “That’s all I really tried to do.”Johnson, meanwhile, didn’t fly from the weak side for any of his three blocks like Cauley-Stein did. He didn’t throw down any dunks likely to appear on SportsCenter in scoring nine points. He didn’t elevate over everyone else to grab any of his career-high 11 rebounds. All he did was get the job done, and more often than not with a big smile on his face.”Dakari is so physical,” Aaron Harrison said. “He plays with so much emotion. I love that he’s on my team. He’s always playing hard, always trying to help everybody out. He’s really physical and he definitely kept us in the game.”Maybe Johnson’s energy is rubbing off on Cauley-Stein, because the sophomore showed as much emotion as he has all season against LSU. Or maybe he was just eager to get the bad taste from UK’s SEC Tournament flameout of a year ago out of his mouth.”It’s win or go home,” Cauley-Stain said. “I want to do better than last year, so I feel like a burden’s off my shoulder because we did better than last year. It’s a win-or-go-home type thing from here on out and it doesn’t matter how you win it. If you win it by one, if you win it by 30, 40, it doesn’t matter.”Whatever it was, UK will be looking for Cauley-Stein and Johnson to keep it up. For much of the season, the two bigs have taken turns playing well. Against LSU, everyone saw what it looks like when Coach Cal can rotate between two very different players playing at their top of their game.”I think it affects the opponent a lot. Willie, he’s very good defensively and he can make some moves offensively,” Johnson said. “And then when you can just bring us in and interchange us, it just gives a different look to the opponent.”The Tigers saw a different look entirely for long stretches, as Coach Cal turned to a lineup featuring both Cauley-Stein and Johnson more often than he has all season.”I just think that Dakari, there are times where he’s just so effective, they both are, and even played them both together,” Calipari said. “We had two 7-footers out there today. Willie can play four. He can do it.”How much Calipari uses the two together for the rest of the postseason remains to be seen, but at least half the duo hopes to see more of the twin-tower lineup.”I like playing with Willie because he kind of covers up some of my flaws defensively,” Johnson said. “He’s a great shot blocker, so if I break down on a defensive play he’s back there to help me.”  UK needed every bit of Cauley-Stein’s athleticism and Johnson’s strength to defend Johnny O’Bryant, who averaged 24.5 points and 10.5 rebounds against the Cats in the regular season.”You know, you’re not going to stop Johnny O’Bryant from doing what Johnny O’Bryant does,” Cauley-Stein said. “So you just kind of gotta try to put pressure on him where he makes either a bad play or a tough shot and then just play everybody else on his team because Johnny O’Bryant, he’s really good.”Johnson, Cauley-Stein and Julius Randle took turns guarding the junior forward with plenty of double-team help. O’Bryant scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds, but he was from the force that carried LSU to victory in Baton Rouge, La., in late January.Knowing that stopping O’Bryant altogether was impossible, the Cats — especially the tallest among them — accepted the challenge of slowing him down.”We know to beat them we had to do a good job of guarding Johnny O’Bryant,” Johnson said. “So we just tried to play him tight. He still got a bunch of shots off, but still I think we did a good job defensively.”On both defense and offense, Cauley-Stein and Johnson showed what they can do against LSU. Now, it’s down to them to live up to that new standard they’ve set for themselves.”That’s how we have to play and that’s what Coach has wanted with us throughout the whole season,” Johnson said. “Now I think we’re actually focusing on it and seeing that’s what he wants all of us to do.”To bring you more expansive coverage, CoachCal.com and Cat Scratches will be joining forces for the postseason. You can read the same great stories you are accustomed to from both sites at CoachCal.com and UKathletics.com/blog, but now you’ll enjoy even more coverage than normal.