Metz Camfield of CoachCal.com contributed to this pieceThey’re 38-0 and have set a number of both program and national records this season. And yet, when you talk to the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats and hear about what goes on in their heads something stands out perhaps more than their immense talent.Outside of their athletic “genius” as UK head coach John Calipari says, these guys are no different than any other college basketball players around the country.”We’re student-athletes just like everyone else,” sophomore guard Aaron Harrison said. “We’re required to go to class, we’re required to make the grades, so we’re just like every other program in that sense.”One thing that is different is the amount of attention these players get, which can make life difficult at times.”Everything you do is under a microscope and everything is blown up,” Aaron Harrison said. “You’re just overly criticized and it’s tough being a young man here. But it’s not a bad place to be, obviously.”Oh, of course. We have a great amount of fun. I’m not saying that. It’s just, you have to be careful. It’s a lot of criticism.”Their tweets, Instagram posts and Facebook pages are seen by thousands each and every day. Grown men from opposing teams will heckle and yell at them incessantly during games. Their pictures and highlights have been shown on national TV nearly every day since the calendar turned to February and their bid for an unbeaten season became more realistic. Thirty-minute TV shows have been dedicated to break down how to beat them, and countless stories have been written online, in magazines and in newspapers tackling the same topic. Despite its thrilling win in the Elite Eight on TBS going down as the most viewed college basketball game of all time on cable TV, they’ve also been told they’re ruining college basketball.”I mean it didn’t bother us because we knew it wasn’t the truth,” Harrison said about hearing UK was ruining college basketball. “And we know a lot of people say things about us and make up their own theories about us, but most of it’s not true.”Perhaps the biggest theory the Cats have had to face this year is if they can become the first team in 39 years to complete an undefeated season with a national championship. Just two wins shy now, freshman forward Karl-Anthony Towns said the prospect of doing such a thing is hard for somebody to think of at the beginning of the year, much less practice.”Obviously, coming in, I knew my brothers, we had a great amount of talent, but you never knew were going to jell so well and this season was going to go the way it went,” Towns said. “You just were blessed with this opportunity, and you just want to take it as full amount as you can take it as, cherish every moment, and try to end the season with no regrets, and that’s what we’re going to try to do this weekend.”UK-Wisconsin matchup the same, but differentIt’s a familiar sight, Kentucky and Wisconsin going head to head with a trip to the national championship game on the line.Just a year ago, the Cats topped the Badgers on the third of three memorable Aaron Harrison 3-pointers in the NCAA Tournament, completing a comeback from five points down with barely six minutes remaining to win, 74-73.Wisconsin, then, will surely have vengeance on its mind Saturday, right? Aaron Harrison isn’t sure that will be a major factor.”When you get this close and to the Final Four, everyone’s motivated,” Aaron Harrison said. “… I mean, I’m not really sure how other teams are feeling, but I know we’re just as motivated as we’ve ever been and even more so. We’re just going out trying to win games, make statements and play as hard as we can.”Furthermore, the two teams that will take the floor in Lucas Oil Stadium are not the same ones that played in AT&T Stadium last April. To be sure, both have plenty of returners, but UK has added four talented freshmen to its rotation and lost Julius Randle and James Young to the NBA. For Wisconsin, Ben Brust has graduated and Traevon Jackson is only just playing his way back into the rotation after suffering a right foot injury in January.And oh yeah, Willie Cauley-Stein is back.The consensus All-American missed last year’s national semifinal with a stress fracture in his ankle, leaving UK to deal with Wisconsin All-American Frank Kaminsky without its top defender. The Cats, throwing everyone from Julius Randle to Marcus Lee to Dakari Johnson at the versatile 7-footer, limited Kaminsky to just eight points on seven shots, including no 3-point tries, but Cauley-Stein still figures to provide a boost.”You know it’s going to be great,” Johnson said. “He matches up well with the guys they have on the floor. He gives us just another weapon that we didn’t have last year.”Wisconsin offense another stiff test for UKJohn Calipari was less than 48 hours into preparing for a national semifinal matchup with Wisconsin when he joined the Final Four Coaches’ Teleconference on Monday.He’d already seen everything he needed to out of the Badgers.”Well, they’re outstanding,” Coach Cal said. “We just played a great offensive team in Notre Dame. This team rivals and maybe surpasses because they can iso you in the post.”Considering the Fighting Irish scored more points per possession than any UK opponent this season in the Elite Eight, that’s high praise.Wisconsin ranks first nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, comfortably ahead of second-place Notre Dame. The Badgers have scored more than a point per possession in 10 consecutive games. They play at a deliberate pace similar to Notre Dame, but Aaron Harrison says the similarities don’t go much further.”It’s not the same style, I don’t think,” he said.Working in UK’s favor on Saturday will be some additional preparation time. Against Notre Dame, the Wildcats had to get ready for a complex, efficient offense in essentially a day. This time around, they have a week.”I think it showed it’s really hard when you have to prepare for a team in a day’s span and get ready for a whole different offense with such great shooters,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “I think that’s what’s so great, we have a whole week this week to prepare for Wisconsin and get used to their offense, and get to implement our defense into their offensive game plan and try to make it the most difficult for them as we possibly can.”Towns on the cover of latest Sports IllustratedFor the third time this season, a Kentucky Wildcat is on the cover of Sports Illustrated.Towns is the latest to grace the cover of the famed sports magazine. In a regional cover, Towns is shown overhead scoring two of his career-high 25 points against Notre Dame. To the left of him is a headline reading “From the brink. To the brink. Kentucky closes in on … 40-0″The 6-foot-11 freshman was also on the March 16 cover previewing the NCAA Tournament along with frontcourt mates Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson. Junior forward Alex Poythress was on Sports Illustrated’s college basketball preview issue Nov. 10.

This week’s regional cover: @KentuckyMBB is on the brink of history http://t.co/ifvP1FEQSq pic.twitter.com/S9oI9PDwAC

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 1, 2015