“That rivalry is real hate”: Aaron Harrison recalls Kentucky’s upset over Louisville in 2014 tournament, fueling deep postseason run

The Kentucky Wildcats are one of college basketball's blue bloods due to their sustained winning pedigree over the years. The Wildcats' most intense rivalry, fondly referred to as 'The Battle of the Bluegrass,' is with the Louisville Cardinals.

The sides met in a Sweet 16 grudge match during the 2014 NCAA Tournament, and the reigning national champion Cardinals under legendary coach Rick Pitino were heavy favorites. Coach John Calipari's Wildcats were heavy underdogs due to an inconsistent season.

The Wildcats pulled off the upset, winning 74-69 and eventually reaching the national championship game. During Friday's segment of the "Run Your Race" podcast, former Kentucky star Aaron Harrison detailed his team's upset of Louisville (Timestamp: 39:29).

"We played Louisville,” Harrison said. "Yeah, we played Louisville and then Michigan. Talk about that rivalry for a second man, that rivalry is crazy, like real-life hate. I don’t like Louisville, I mean, I don’t like them, but the people there? They hate them. Like, it’s real hate. And the crazy part is, we played them in the tournament, so the build-up was wild.

"They were doing well that year. We were doing bad. I think the only big game we actually won that season was against Louisville. So they just thought they were gonna run through us because they had veterans, and they were playing well at the time. But I don’t know, we just started playing the right way at the right time."

When Rick Pitino detailed the Kentucky vs. Louisville rivalry

Charismatic coach Rick Pitino had a unique window into the Kentucky Wildcats-Louisville Cardinals rivalry. During his eight-year tenure at the helm of the Wildcats (1989-1997), he led them to a national championship win in 1996. By way of the Boston Celtics, he joined the Cardinals in 2001 and led them to the 2013 national championship.

During an interview with ESPN in 2012, Pitino broke down just how intense the rivalry between Kentucky and Louisville was.

"Oh," Pitino says, "this (rivalry) is the sickest of them all. It's tough for a Northeast person to understand, I think. We grew up with the Knicks, the Yankees, but we would never get that worked up over a game. Sports are a meaningful distraction to people there. Here, it's not a distraction. It's their life. You know I've lived here 20 years and I guess I still don't get it."

The Cardinals fell on hard times when Rick Pitino departed in 2017, and the heat of their rivalry against the Kentucky Wildcats faded somewhat. The lustre was restored to the game last year with the revival of the Cardinals under first-year coach Pat Kelsey despite losing to coach Mark Pope's Wildcats at the Rupp Arena.