No. 1 Kentucky is clicking.
That’s a scary sentence. The Cats are the nearly unanimous top-ranked team in the nation, have beaten everybody on their schedule except one team, and stand one shot from perfection (which actually is a good thing, as the “will they go undefeated?” chatter” would be heating up right around now).
And they’re just now starting to round into dominant form.
In the past two games, UK has converged on fully realizing its vast potential. The Cats eviscerated LSU on Saturday, then went platinum against Tennessee on Tuesday, 69-44.
Would this be what head coach John Calipari envisioned a few weeks ago when he said, once everything started coming together and the Cats started resolving their few glaring weaknesses, that UK could be “scary” good?
“I would,” he said.
But it wasn’t Anthony Davis, he of the 18 points, eight rebounds and seven turnovers, that Calipari said has been the primary reason for making his team go.
It wasn’t Terrence Jones, he of the 11 points and six rebounds, whose physical play has taken UK up a notch.
It wasn’t Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, he of a quiet 16 points and eight rebounds, either.
Those three players all help immensely, sure. But they don’t get going without the player Calipari said was the crucial component to making the offense click.
It was Marquis Teague, he of nine points, four assists and two turnovers.
“The guy that has the ball, if he’s playing well, you’ve got a chance,” Calipari said. “If he’s not playing well, you have no chance.”
UK had more than a chance against Tennessee. It was the most guaranteed thing I had seen since watching 4 a.m. infomercial promises (and waiting to hear more) on Saturday night. The Cats made their first shot of the game, then another, and then nine more to start the game. They didn’t miss until 11 minutes had elapsed.
While the offense is slowly getting to the point where it can consistently manufacture points, the defense has been a constant shut-it-down entity.
UK held the Volunteers to 28.1 percent shooting, the Volunteers’ worst shooting night of the season. Other than Renaldo Woolridge’s five straight 3-pointers in the first half (he had made one of seven attempts in SEC play before this game), Tennessee was getting rebuffed from every spot on the floor. The Volunteers finished with 44 points, their lowest scoring output of the year.
But for opponents playing UK, it was another night facing the same shredding defense. UK has held three straight opponents to 50 points or less for the first time since 1950-51.
That’s a damn long time.
Between that opening stretch and the full-game defense, UK showed it’s not just the current No. 1 team in the nation. It also has, far and away, the highest ceiling. And the closer March comes, the closer UK comes to getting all the way to the top.
“Coach Cal always says he doesn’t care about winning or losing, he just wants to get better as a team,” Davis said. “If we do that, we’ll be fine.”
Right now, the Cats are doing both. And they’re doing more than jut fine.