Will a Trap Game Be the Downfall of Kentucky's Undefeated Season?

Kentucky improved to 10-0 on Wednesday night against Columbia, but it wasn't easy.

At any rate, it wasn't as easy as it was supposed to be. According to Odds Shark, Kentucky opened as a 23-point favorite, yet incredibly it was Columbia that held a two-point lead at the half. Kentucky ended up winning but only by a score of 56-46.

This marked the second time this season that the Wildcats trailed at intermission. Every last one of us would have guessed that if the Wildcats were to find themselves down at the half to this point in the season, it would be to Kansas or Texas.

Rather, it has been the game before the challenging games that has caused them the most trouble—otherwise known as the "trap game."

Remember the Buffalo game two days before the Champions Classic? We lost our minds when Kentucky trailed 38-33 at the half of that one, but the boys in blue finally got it in gear and completely shut down the Bulls in the second half en route to a 19-point win.

Or how about the Providence game the weekend before the tilt with Texas? That was a one-point game with 17 minutes left before Kentucky woke up and blew out the Friars by 20.

Then you have Wednesday night's game against the Ivy League Lions.

They're 25 percent of the way finished with their quest for a perfect season, but do they have the mental toughness to pull it off?

Let's at least note that both Devin Booker and Tyler Ulis were unavailable for this game, throwing a wrench into John Calipari's platoon system and leaving the poor Wildcats with only seven healthy McDonald's All-Americans.

We'll let you make the jokes about which team was evidently up all night cramming for finals, but in the tuneup game for Saturday's showdown with North Carolina, the Wildcats came out flatter than a pancake.

James Crisp/Associated Press

Five minutes into the game, Columbia led 11-0, and Kentucky had already committed three of the four turnovers it would have in the game.

The Wildcats didn't start out the second half much better, giving up perhaps the most uncontested layup in Kentucky history as Maodo Lo effortlessly dribbled past his man and right through the lane as four Wildcats watched.

A few possessions later, Kentucky completely forgot to box anyone out and allowed an easy tip-in.

When Kentucky is focused, it is unquestionably the best team in the country.

In these trap games, however, the Wildcats have looked extremely mortal until midway through the second half when an alley-oop or two finally reminds them the game actually counts.

The good news is that aside from the aforementioned possessions on Wednesday night, the defense has been absolutely outstanding.

Only once this season has Kentucky allowed an opponent to score more than 52 points. The Wildcats have not yet allowed an opponent to average a point per possession.

Heck, the Columbia game was the first time they allowed an opponent to reach 0.9 points per possession.

As Gary Parrish wrote on Tuesday for CBSSports.com, the Wildcats could be the best defensive team in college basketball history. In that piece, Parrish detailed how ridiculously good they have been:

"

Opponents are shooting 29.8 percent inside the arc against Kentucky, which is also on track to break the modern-era record set by Kansas (38.4 percent) in the 2005-06 season. And Kentucky is blocking 25.9 percent of its opponents' shots, which is on track to break the modern-era record set by Connecticut (21.0 percent) in the 2006-07 season.

"

They aren't simply on track to break records. They're on pace to demolish them.

As far as the two-point percentage is concerned, North Carolina could shoot 40-of-40 from inside the arc on Saturday and Kentucky would still be 0.2 percent ahead of Kansas' modern-era record.

So even on nights like Wednesday, when it takes 25-30 minutes for the offense to get cooking, the Wildcats are never more than a possession or two away from regaining the lead.

The big question then becomes what happens when they face a team that doesn't wilt down the stretch?

With North Carolina coming to town this Saturday and a huge rivalry game at Louisville looming two weeks later, what if Kentucky overlooks that neutral-court game against UCLA in between?

(And when before in history has a neutral-court game against UCLA been a trap game?)

After Louisville beat Indiana Tuesday night, Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com caught up with Montrezl Harrell, who is already talking about the upcoming game against Kentucky:

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As far as how we are against Kentucky, I don't really get too concerned. We're going to give them everything we've got. No team has really pressured them. There's no team out there that plays how we play. That's why I think we have the advantage on people. Everybody can try to pressure and practice to prepare for it, but nobody can run it how we run it.

"

If Louisville players are already talking about the game, you know Kentucky players are at least thinking about it.

But the Wildcats need to remain 100 percent focused on every game unless they want the Bruins to come out and drop 100 points on them.

After all, this has been the season of insane upsets. If NJIT can beat Michigan and Incarnate Word can beat Nebraska, anything can happen.

Should the Wildcats make it to SEC play unscathed, though, all eyes will be on Florida to end their perfect season. However, before both of those rivalry games against the Gators, they'll face a Georgia team that could be desperately in need of that one signature win to get into the tournament.

Forget about the big-name opponents because those are the tanks Kentucky is looking out for as well.

Instead, it's looking like it could be a landmine that breaks the 40-0 printing presses.

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