Kentucky's Calling Card of Defense Will Help Carry Them in Foul-Filled Contests

We'll be hearing whistles in our sleep for the next few days after watching No. 1 Kentucky outlast No. 6 Texas by a score of 63-51 in a physical battle that featured 51 personal fouls.

This game was ugly.

For large stretches, it was downright unwatchable.

Twitter was overflowing with complaints about the flow of the game and the amount of fouls being called, but nobody put it better than Sam Vecenie of CBS Sports:

"

That was maybe the worst half of basketball I’ve seen all year. And I watched all of Rutgers-UVA.

— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) December 6, 2014"

Yet there was really never a doubt that Kentucky's defense and depth would prevail in the end—as always.

First things first, Texas deserves a ton of praise for fighting as hard as it did.

Playing without starting point guard Isaiah Taylor as he continues to recover from a broken bone in his wrist—and effectively playing without big men Cameron Ridley and Myles Turner, who combined for seven points, seven rebounds and 10 fouls in just 34 minutes of action—the Longhorns at least had the illusion of a chance at pulling off an upset.

When fully healthy and not playing in games being officiated like it's November 2013 all over again, Texas really might be the team most suited to beat Kentucky. Even with all those fouls, the Longhorns still grabbed 16 offensive rebounds and beat Kentucky on the glass by a margin of plus-11.

However, Kentucky's defense was just too much for them to handle.

Texas had eight more turnovers than made field goals. Kentucky blocked "only" four shots in the game, but Dakari Johnson, Karl-Anthony Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein altered at least half a dozen other shots.

The Longhorns worked hard on the offensive glass. But it really felt like the only reason they got so many second chances is because the first chances were thrown so haphazardly at the rim that it was a coin flip for who would come up with the loose ball.

Without Taylor, their offense has certainly been a work in progress. In their last game before this one, the Longhorns shot 30 percent from the field in a 63-53 win over Texas-Arlington.

Suffice it to say, the last team you want to see when you're already struggling to make shots is Kentucky.

Coming into this game, the Wildcats ranked first in the nation in defensive effective field-goal percentage, turnover percentage, block percentage, and two-point field-goal defense, all according to KenPom.com (subscription required).

Considering Texas shot less than 30 percent from the field and committed 22 turnovers, there's a pretty good chance the Wildcats will remain top dog in all of those categories.

That defense combined with the type of transition offense that Matt Norlander captured in a Vine make Kentucky unbeatable.

In this particular game, Cauley-Stein was Mr. Everything on defense. He had nine of the team's 19 defensive rebounds, five of its nine steals and three of its four blocks.

(Perhaps Cauley-Stein's most noteworthy number was 33 minutes, as opposed to just four for Marcus Lee, even though Lee didn't commit a single foul. R.I.P. Platoons.)

Cauley-Stein was equally outstanding on the other end of the court, finishing the night with 21 points, but as Jay Bilas said near the end of ESPN's broadcast of the game, "You've got to put him right up there for National Defensive Player of the Year. It's awfully early, but who has been a better defender than he's been?"

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Actually, before tonight Towns had the best case for that honor. He didn't do much of anything in this game, but he was averaging 6.5 blocks per 40 minutes and leading the team in defensive rebounding percentage.

And if it isn't Cauley-Stein or Towns, it has been Johnson grabbing rebounds and blocking shots.

If all three of them happen to have an off-night, how can you argue with Trey Lyles—the team's second-best defensive rebounder—as the fourth-best interior defender?

Let's not forget Alex Poythress, either, who is also blocking close to two shots per game.

You get the idea.

Even when you get Kentucky into all sorts of foul trouble—those five big men combined to draw 19 whistles on Friday night—the Wildcats are still impossible to score against.

Just think about it: Kentucky shot 37.5 percent from the field, was outrebounded by 11, committed 26 fouls leading to 29 free-throw attempts and still won by 12 points.

James Crisp/Associated Press

If there exists a blueprint to beating Kentucky, Texas followed it to a T and still couldn't even cover the 12-point spread, according to OddsShark.com.

The sad and funny thing is that there are people out there who think Duke has the best chance of beating Kentucky. What is Duke going to do against this juggernaut when Jahlil Okafor gets into foul trouble, other than hope and pray that Marshall Plumlee doesn't get posterized too many times?

Even when the Wildcats are dealing with foul trouble and missing shots—they were 0-of-11 from three-point range until Andrew Harrison finally made one near the end of the game—they are just too big, too deep, too good at defense and too talented to be beaten.

Maybe—maybe—a team could get hot from three-point range and nullify Kentucky's great interior defense.

However, opponents are shooting just 25.4 percent from beyond the arc against Kentucky this season, thanks in large part to a 6'8" small forward and a pair of 6'6" twins manning the guard positions for more than half the game.

No, the only team that can beat Kentucky is Kentucky.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: There are a good number of teams out there that can hang with the Wildcats for 30 minutes, but it would take something truly incredible to have the lead over this team after 40 minutes.

Unless they start turning the ball over left and right and sulking through games the way they occasionally would in the first four months of the 2013-14 season, the Wildcats will go 40-0.

Not might, could or should—will.

They can thank the nation's best, deepest and most athletic defense for that.

Statistics courtesy of ESPN.com and KenPom.com.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.