SLU and Kentucky are basically the same when it comes to college basketball.  Both wear the royal blue and are undefeated at press time.  Both dwell in the Central time zone.  Both play home games in a sold-out Arena.

However, perplexed reader, I realize there are differences.  To wit:

Sweet Sixteens (since 1985):

• Kentucky  18
• SLU 0

McDonald’s All-Americans (2014-15):

• Kentucky 9
• SLU 0

Pre-season rank (KenPom.com):

• Kentucky #3
• SLU #81

As the season kicks off, let’s not dwell on what divides us.  What unites SLU and Kentucky is both schools are in the unique position of trying to figure out how to play 13 guys.   They approach this problem for different reasons, and are choosing to tackle it different ways.

Kentucky coach John Calipari has the aforementioned 9 McDonald’s All-Americans, adding an incredibly talented freshman class to a group that largely opted to give college another year.  Cal is going with an innovative Two Platoon system, essentially creating two independent units that will swap in wholesale.

SLU coach Jim Crews had five senior starters depart, adding transfers and six freshman to returnees hungry for minutes.  The early word is coach Crews will use a Safecracker’s approach, trying as many different combinations as he can until something clicks.

Coach Crews has proven himself and incredibly skilled tinkerer when it comes to his lineups, inserting an offensively-limited sophomore Grandy Glaze  into the starting lineup two years ago, and tapping senior Jake Barnett last year.  Both moves touched off long winning streaks — Glaze 11 straight, Barney a record 19 in a row — and Crews knew well enough to leave it be when those streaks ended.  Two straight A-10 titles were the result.

I will be interested to see if SLU sticks with Safecracker through the entire non-conference season, or if the buzz around Kentucky’s inevitable success with Two Platoon causes SLU to give it a go.