Kentucky Basketball: Is a Regular-Season Loss Inevitable for Wildcats?

Just go ahead and lose already, Kentucky. We know you want to.

During the last few weeks of the Wildcats' push to become the first team to go unbeaten in college basketball since 1976, what earlier this season seemed like a pretty good bet is now looking more like a long shot. While they remain the odds-on favorite to win the national title, any talk of this team making it through the whole year without a loss feels like wasted effort.

It's going to happen, sooner rather than later. In fact, it's starting to get into that area of the season where it would be in Kentucky's best interest to suffer a loss, to take some of the pressure off a talented-yet-young team that is starting to venture into uncharted territory.

Coach John Calipari has more or less said this, eluding to his concerns about putting victories before overall performance prior to the start of SEC play.

"If we play really well and lose, I'm going to be fine with it," Calipari said, per Kyle Tucker of the Louisville Courier-Journal. "Now, if we play poorly and win, I'm going to be upset. It means we're slipping."

As fate would have it, those comments came right before Kentucky was taken to overtime, at home, before beating Ole Miss in its SEC opener. Four days later, the Wildcats needed double-OT to win at Texas A&M.

Kentucky's perfect nonconference slate included a few sluggish first halves, but that could better be chalked up to disinterest than poor play. The same can't be said for the varying results since SEC play began.

Follow along as we chart the roller coaster that Kentucky has been on since the calendar turned 2015, and how it points toward a very predictable future:

Kentucky 89, Ole Miss 86, OT (Jan. 6): The Wildcats scored the game's first 12 points and were up 18-5, seemingly on their way to another blowout, when Ole Miss decided to play back and lead by two at the half. Kentucky made another big run to open the second half, only to see the Rebels rally again and have a chance to win at the end of regulation.

In OT, Kentucky trailed twice before winning at the free-throw line.

Kentucky 70, Texas A&M 64, 2 OT (Jan. 10): Kentucky's first SEC road game looked tenuous from the start, with a deficit as large as 11 points in the first half. The Wildcats fought back to force OT, but they still had to fight off numerous opportunities by the Aggies to pull off a major upset despite missing one of its best players.

Kentucky 86, Missouri 37 (Jan. 13): Apparently miffed by the closeness of the previous two games, Kentucky wasted little time going up big on the Tigers and never taking their foot off the gas. The Wildcats led 44-18 at halftime and then won the final 20 minutes by 23 points, almost perpetually increasing their lead.

Kentucky 70, Alabama 48 (Jan. 17): A packed house in Tuscaloosa had high hopes, but those were squashed quickly, with the Wildcats leading by 18 points at the half. The Crimson Tide trimmed that to nine early in the second half, but then Kentucky regrouped and won running away.

Kentucky 65, Vanderbilt 57 (Jan. 20): Though not as nip-and-tuck as the Texas A&M and Ole Miss games, Kentucky still rarely had a chance to feel comfortable with their lead until the clock hit all zeroes. The lead was seven at the half and never got larger than 12, with scrappy Vanderbilt never going away despite some clutch scoring from Kentucky's Andrew Harrison.

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The closer outcomes have had very little to do with the quality of the opponent or the timing of the games, as Vanderbilt came in on a three-game losing streak that included a setback to SEC doormat Mississippi State while Texas A&M had lost by 21 to Alabama right before hosting the Wildcats.

If it were just a matter of Kentucky running into a hot team, or one playing out of its mind, that's one thing, but so far that's not been much of the case. Other than some hot shooting from a couple of Ole Miss players, it's more been the Wildcats' doing than anything the opponents have brought to the table. That reeks of a team that's struggling to maintain focus and intensity, and few things do more to fix that than a humbling loss.

And for a Kentucky team that's 18-0 and expected to win every game by 20, any loss would fit that description.

Going 40-0 would be amazing, but there's no shame in a 39-1 or 38-2 record that ends with the same scenes of Kentucky players and coaches cutting down nets while surrounded by thousands of Big Blue Nation at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.