Kentucky Basketball: Are the Wildcats Just Straight-Up Unbeatable?

I like to fancy myself a realist. When I look at a team like Kentucky, currently sitting at 22-0, I try not to focus too much on the record or even the results of a game. Instead, I look at how they're developing individually and as a team. If anything, I'm overly critical and focus on their flaws because that's what shows a team's true colors.

But now? Screw it. This team is going undefeated.

I'm sorry. I tried to hold off as long as I could. And I understand if an 11-point victory over a Georgia team missing their leading scorer seems like an odd time to declare invincibility. But I think I'm finally convinced.

You have to start with Kentucky's heralded defense. And I understand you've been beaten over the head about how great they are for months now, but it can't be overstated how good or important defense is to this team.

First of all, every single player on this team can defend. There is no weak link. That's crucial. There's no player that teams can pick on or try to take advantage of. The closest thing Kentucky has to that is Tyler Ulis because of his size, but he's such a great defender anyway that it takes a pretty elaborate game plan to attack what weaknesses his height affords. And even then, Kentucky can just take him out of the game and replace him with a guard that's 6'6".

The guards play tight defense on the perimeter, and the bigs patrol the paint and erase any mistakes. They switch on almost everything, which takes away the pick-and-roll and Kentucky is so athletic that it doesn't even really create matchup problems.

Basically, there are no easy baskets. Teams need easy baskets to get into a rhythm offensively. Even if an opponent shoots well, it's because they hit really tough shots. Not a lot of teams out there can do that for an entire game, or at least enough to score more than the Wildcats.

Then there's the offense, which has been the one sore spot for John Calipari's squad. If anyone is going to beat this team, conventional thinking is that it's going to be because Kentucky ran into a night when they couldn't buy a bucket. They have no go-to scorer, and the closest thing to that, Aaron Harrison, is currently shooting 37 percent. Not exactly a sure thing.

But here's the thing about Kentucky's offense. Of the 10 guys that play, eight of them are capable of making a shot at any moment. They may not have one incredible scorer, but to have eight pretty damn good scorers is not such a bad position to be in.

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Kentucky has had eight different players lead the team in scoring in a game this season. That means that even if you catch them on a day where, say, your two best shooters go 4-of-14 combined for 10 points like Aaron Harrison and Devin Booker did against Georgia, you still have Andrew Harrison and Karl-Anthony Towns combine for 38 to pick up the slack.

Then there's the question of motivation. We've seen games in which Kentucky just doesn't bring that energy they need to overwhelm opponents and they have to scramble to eek out a win. It's not always pretty. But no matter how the game goes, the result is always the same: a win.

How many times have we seen really good teams lose to inferior ones this season? Duke lost to North Carolina State and Miami. Wisconsin lost to Rutgers. Arizona lost to UNLV. Losses happen. It's incredibly hard to maintain the kind of intensity you need to win night in and night out. It's the mark of a great team that they can get the W on days when they don't have their A game. Or even their B game.

What are the odds that a team has their best offensive game of the year while simultaneously catching Kentucky on one of those off nights where they don't play with energy and none of those eight scorers pick up the slack? How many things have to fall into place for Kentucky to lose? It would take an Adnan Syed amount of coincidences.

Look, it could happen. Anything is possible, as Kevin Garnett so eloquently put it. But it won't happen. 

Kentucky may not be a team with a once-in-a-generation talent like Anthony Davis. Their best five may not be able to match up with, say, Florida's core from their 2006 and 2007 championship teams. But make no mistake about it: This is a special team.

Calipari has assembled a deep team where every player knows and fulfills their role. Everybody brings something to the table, and very rarely do they take anything off of it. This team was built to win. Maybe more accurately, they were built not to lose.

For years, people have complained about Calipari's one-and-done recruiting style, but what they really should have been worried about was what would happen if enough of those "one-and-dones" stayed. Because now we're seeing that in action. And the answer?

An unbeatable team.