Unbeaten in the SEC?

With a pretty difficult non-conference schedule safely behind them, the Cats now focus on the upcoming SEC schedule, a road littered with opportunities for upsets and annihilation alike. Given their current 15-0 record, it's easy to speculate that Kentucky could easily go undefeated in the regular season, but anyone that follows the SEC is well aware of the difficulties of traveling to places like Vandy's Memorial Gymnasium (seriously, who sets up a floor with benches on the endlines?) and the O'Connell Center in Gainesville, FL.

Kentucky is the only team in league history to finish the regular season slate without a defeat, both in 1996 and 2003, and with the conference much weaker than it has been in recent years, it's not too outrageous to suggest that this year's team has a better than average chance to run the table.

If the Cats can manage to stay unbeaten as the season progresses, the conversation will ultimately turn to the age old question: "Wouldn't it be better to lose a game before the tournament?" I think anyone that argues that losing a game is a good thing is crazy, although I'm not saying that it's necessarily the worst thing that can happen.

Losing a game just to get the monkey off your back, so to speak, is ludicrous. If you lose a hard-fought game to a team that was better than you on that night, so be it, but it's not going to make a hell of a lot of difference if you head into the tournament at 30-1 instead of 31-0.

A perfectly relevant example can be found in the NFL this season when the Indianapolis Colts decided to bench their starters in the third quarter, forsaking a chance at an unbeaten season in order to "prevent injuries." If a coach is really that concerned about players getting injured, why not forfeit the game? Players have just as good of a chance of getting hurt in the first quarter as they do in the fourth (evidenced by Wes Welker's ruptured knee ligaments on the first play from scrimmage a week later), so really, once you have home field advantage locked up, why not stop playing altogether? Not only did the Colts in essence forfeit the game by benching their first-string players, they ultimately gave up the chance of achieving a feat previously reached by only two other teams in NFL history.

But I digress. What does Kentucky have to do to go unbeaten this year? Only a few things, really; the most important of which is maintaining their composure on the road. Very few teams are going to have a legitimate shot at beating the Wildcats at Rupp, but once UK hits the road, everything changes. They'll also need to stay healthy and, more importantly, keep their fitness levels up so they don't tire down the stretch. Perhaps most important, however, is the need for role players to step up on nights when Wall, Patterson, and Cousins either don't perform or get in foul trouble. Darius Miller and Daniel Orton's performances against Louisville were far from stellar (and that's being kind), and the Cats will need them to step up at some point this season, preferably sooner rather than later.

When all is said and done, I think the Cats will lose two games, both on the road, most likely against Florida and Mississippi State. Nevertheless, they'll claim the SEC regular and postseason crowns, and head into March Madness as a no. 1 seed.