SCREEN STAR JUDD WILD FOR CATS.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

California had the Gold Rush, Kentucky has Fort Knox.

Los Angeles has Scientologists, Lexington had Shakers.

The UCLA men's basketball team has a Hollywood following. The Kentucky men's basketball team has a Hollywood following. And, oh, brother, what Bruins senior J.R. Henderson wouldn't give to be a Wildcat for a day.

Let's get serious, singer Jermaine Jackson of Jackson 5 fame is all swell and good, but what young man's heart wouldn't flutter at the sight of actress Ashley Judd in his team's locker room?

Like Kentucky's defensive pressure, Judd (U.K. class of 1989) was a fixture at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta last week, watching the Wildcats' blowout wins over Davidson and Saint Louis from a bleacher seat directly behind her alma mater's bench.

How keen a Kentucky fan is Judd? Once she was chilling - literally - on the set of one of the dozen movies she has made, when some well-intentioned but misguided soul offered her a University of North Carolina jacket to wear.

``I'd rather freeze to death,'' the normally radiant Judd rasped.

Wearing a Wildcats T-shirt, waving blue-and-white pompons and trailed by no entourage, Judd, 29, would have blended into the blue-and-white background that overpowered the Georgia Dome if not for the bedazzled CBS cameraman who trained his lens on her during practically every stoppage in play.

Henderson, frankly, couldn't blame the guy. ``She's so fine,'' he said after leading the Bruins to a date with the Wildcats in the third round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday in St. Petersburg, Fla.

No word yet on whether or not Jackson will make the trip to Florida. He is the only Hollywood fixture Henderson could think of with anywhere near the devotion to the Bruins that Judd has for the Wildcats.

``I love the Wildcats but especially these boys,'' she said on Sunday as she made her way into the Kentucky locker room, which in her presence becomes the kiss-and-sigh room.

Judd wasted little time booking her trip to Florida, ignoring the clucking tongues of her Hollywood friends who have a rooting interest in only one brand of competition, for a statuette named Oscar.

If Kentucky (31-4) gets past the Bruins (24-8), it will play either Duke or Syracuse on Sunday afternoon. Judd will be praying for no travel delays out of Tampa on Monday, because she is one of presenters at the Academy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. that night.

It's an honor to occupy center stage on Hollywood's most star-studded night, even if it's only for as long as it has taken the Wildcats lately to jump out to double-digit leads. There's no better exposure, which is why designers who would make any dandy's first-team All-Star list were sending Judd evening gowns to Atlanta last week via overnight mail.

After trying on sultry, silken, sensational creations, Judd changed back into her gray, short-sleeved Wildcats T-shirt and pants before going Cat-crazy. The most pressing concern last week of the woman who has graced dozens of magazine covers - including this week's ``InStyle'' - was whether or not she'd be able to find someone to paint Cat paws on her cheeks.

Judd, who has deep family roots in Ashland, Ky., on the state's eastern border, majored in French and English literature as an undergraduate. She also became fluent in basketball.

It doesn't take long for new Kentucky players to realize Judd is not just another pretty face. The woman whom one national publication anointed one of the 50 Most Beautiful People and another recently labeled its Most Fabulous, Fearless, Fun Female is like a big sister to the fraternity that is Wildcats basketball.

The first time a Kentucky player notices Judd sitting across the table from him at an informal dinner on the road or chatting with one of his teammates in the locker room, the tendency is to get a little star struck. The Wildcats exist in an environment, after all, where they are the closest thing to celebrities.

A Kentucky player seeing her up-close for the first time sees Kate McTiernan, the psychologist who joined forces with a police detective (Morgan Freeman) to find a serial killer in the movie, ``Kiss the Girls.'' Or Norma Jean Baker, the role she played in the HBO movie ``Norma Jean and Marilyn.''

But to spend any time around Judd is to forget she's famous.

``I watched the movie `Kiss the Girls' again (recently) and I was like, `Jeez, she was just in our locker room,' '' said junior guard Wayne Turner. ``It's funny, because I just think of her as plain ol' Ashley.''

Judd is very protective of her basketball brood. The mother of senior guard Allen Edwards lost a battle to breast cancer during the Southeast Conference Tournament. Edwards went home to bury her then returned for the championship game against Arkansas.

At the first press conference after his return, a reporter asked Edwards, in so many words, if he'd relive the day of his mother's funeral as if he were a professional golfer replaying every hole of his round and not a grieving child.

Judd was dumbfounded. She told Edwards later that she went up to the reporter afterward and ``told him off.''

Heaven help anybody who dares try to paint Friday's matchup as the Hillbillies Meet Beverly Hills. As Judd once said of people who make fun of her Kentucky roots and her clinging to them, ``They have no idea what they're getting into when they blow off about that.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO ``I'd rather freeze to death.''

- Ashley Judd

the shivering actress said to someone who tried to warm her up with a North Carolina jacket.