LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A somber hush hovered over Kentucky basketball players Friday, replacing the jovial atmosphere that usually exudes from this group of Wildcats.
They were just coming to grips with the sudden loss of one of their leaders for the rest of the season, junior forward Alex Poythress.
Willie Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson reservedly talked about Poythress' devastating knee injury on a routine layup in practice.
But the top-ranked Wildcats don't have a lot of time to regroup emotionally as they prepare for Saturday's match with No. 21 North Carolina.
"We definitely have to try to get a win for him and just play hard for him," Johnson said. "I know if he was out there, he would play his hardest."
Poythress, 6-foot-8 and 240-pounds, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, the school said Friday. A date for surgery has not been set, but recovery typically takes six to eight months.
Kentucky (10-0) will turn to its depth against the Tar Heels (6-2) to fill the void created by Poythress' injury. He was on the first of the Wildcats' two-platoon system that has been so effective early in the season, winning games by an average margin of nearly 30 points.
Wildcats coach John Calipari seemed to take a wait-and-see view of that strategy as he tried to grasp the sudden loss of a key veteran.
Asked if he would stick with the platoons, the coach said, "I don't know