Kentucky looks as dominant as advertised: Can anyone beat the Wildcats?
INDIANAPOLIS – Having just handed fifth-ranked Kansas the fourth-worst loss in its gilded history, John Calipari came into the postgame news conference trying to slow the hype train.
"No, we're not that good," the Kentucky coach said before sitting down. "Next question."
Next question: Do you really expect us to believe that?
Because the hype train done left the station Tuesday night, and it's breaking land-speed records rocketing across Hoopsworld. For a sport that crowns its champion in April, November talk is cheap. But after watching Kentucky 72, Kansas 40 – that's Kansas, not Emporia State – it's fair to openly wonder who, how and when anyone will be able to beat the Wildcats.
I've said for years that a team will not run the table again the way Indiana last did in 1976. I believe that. It will take 40 games now, not the 32 those Hoosiers won. The tournament road is tougher and longer, the spotlight is 1,000 times brighter, the pressure is heavier.
So, no, I don't believe Kentucky will go undefeated. But if the Wildcats can approximate this crushing performance, it will take someone extraordinary doing something extraordinary to beat this sky-scraping, endless rotation of veteran talent.
Tall and talented have become Kentucky staples in the Calipari Era – the key modifier there is veteran. That hasn't been a staple of this era at all.
This is what it looks like when Calipari has both the best players and a full array of experienced players. In a word: duck.
"Somebody's going to have to play a great game to beat them," said Jayhawks coach Bill Self, who began his news conference asking for vodka instead of the water bottle sitting in front of him. "There's no question about that. And that could happen away from home. …Maybe a team that plays four corners, spread the floor, drive and pass at the end of the clock. There's teams out there that play that way."
There are, but the number is few. Now: How many teams play that way and also have the requisite size and athleticism? Well, that's another matter.
Because if Kansas can look this helpless – the Jayhawks shot 19.6 percent and made three field goals in the second half, a performance reminiscent of Butler vs. Connecticut in the 2011 title game – then a whole bunch of the country can look even worse.
"We kind of bum-rushed them a little bit," Calipari said. "And every time they looked, there were more tanks coming over the hill."
Cal was mixing metaphors but speaking truth: Kentucky all but threw the Jayhawks out into the miserably cold Indy night and then ran them over with waves of heavy armor.
The defensive performance was overpowering: Kansas attempted 23 shots from the field in the second half, and made three. Somehow, Buffalo actually led Kentucky by five at halftime on Sunday – but the bright lights and big-name opponent of the Champions Classic clearly brought out maximum defensive intensity in the Wildcats.
"You get long athletes that like to guard," Self said. "They can cover up their mistakes like nobody I've ever seen. They were incredible."
The Kentucky box score is almost artistic in its balance: 10 guys played between 17 and 21 minutes in Calipari's two-platoon system that is designed to keep 10 highly touted, outrageously talented players happy. Nobody took more than eight shots from the field. Nobody attempted more than four free throws. Nobody had more than 10 rebounds. And most strikingly, nobody had more than 11 points.
"If you're winning and everyone's got the same stats, kind of … everyone's going to be happy," said center Willie Cauley-Stein.
"We couldn't do what we're doing if we didn't have solid, selfless kids who will go play half a game," Calipari said.
It has worked sensationally so far, and likely will if every game is this kind of "beatdown," to use the term Self himself applied. But in a program that has made individual success on the professional level its unabashed selling point, it will be hard to select individual players for accolades this year on the college level.
If nobody averages more than 10 points per game, as is the case through three games, who is an All-American? Who is a Naismith or Wooden Award candidate? Who stands out in a faceless army of mass substitutions and interchangeable parts?
Ultimately, none of that will matter if nine of them are drafted in June. But that point may need to be reinforced a few times between now and then, because human nature says there will be some parents, some friends and some folks back home suggesting that somebody needs more shots, more minutes, more points.
But that's the problem (haha) Calipari recruited for himself. And no matter his protestations about the unique challenges playing this way presents, every coach in America would love to have the same problem to solve.
For now, feel free to scour the schedule for adequate challengers to this Kentucky team.
Texas has size and Texas has talent. North Carolina is good and North Carolina is big. But both must come to Rupp Arena – the Longhorns on Dec. 5 and the Tar Heels on Dec. 13. As Self noted, it will be difficult for anyone to win there.
The most difficult non-conference road game is at Louisville, Dec. 27. The Cardinals are off to a most impressive start through two games. But Kentucky has had Louisville's number since Calipari came to Lexington, and the Cardinals are unproven and young inside beyond outstanding power forward Montrezl Harrell.
In the Southeastern Conference? Good luck. Florida is probably the second-best team, and the Cats must go to Gainesville Feb. 7. That's followed Feb. 10 by a game at LSU. But if you're looking for other challenges in the SEC slate, break out a microscope.
Kentucky will lose a game. Possibly more than one. But if the Wildcats play like they did here Tuesday, don't expect them to lose their last game of the season.
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