UK's path to perfection driven by John Calipari's relentless attitude

LEXINGTON, Ky. – At the 9:17 mark of the first half Saturday night, Kentucky led Auburn by the hide-the-women-and-children score of 30-4.

Karl-Anthony Towns, your thoughts at that point?

"How did they get four?" the freshman big man said.

This is the Kentucky mindset, as it flows from coach John Calipari through his outrageously talented and deep roster. In the quest for a perfect season, try to play a perfect game. In the quest for a perfect game, try to have a perfect start. In the quest for a perfect start, begrudge outmanned Auburn its measly four points.

This is why Calipari screams at his players for lapses, even during blowouts. This is why he lingers on the court at halftime to yell at an official, even when his team is up 26. This is why he says his team "did good" in demolishing Auburn 110-75, but still can scan the stat sheet and drill down on a few shortcomings.

Calipari has done his best to politic for the Southeastern Conference as a whole, but it's a pedestrian league and he knows it. He knows that the real challenges will come when his Wildcats are finished steamrolling through it. He knows that any bad habits accrued while beating up on mediocre competition could ultimately be fatal – not just to the 40-0 dream, but to winning a national title with any record.

So he's stayed on his team all game, every game. He's used his bench as motivator and message sender when the standard of play dips below the established level. He's coaching for the round-of-32 matchup with a hard-nosed No. 8 seed, or the Sweet 16 against a talented No. 4, or a regional final matchup with a No. 2. And beyond.

He's coaching for elimination time, with the knowledge that Kentucky's toughest competition between now and then is on the practice floor every day.

"I can't even imagine what their practices are like," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said, somewhat wistfully.

Pearl has had some memorable battles with Calipari over the years – when Pearl was at Tennessee and Calipari was at Memphis, and then at Kentucky. It was Pearl's Volunteers who handed Calipari's national runner-up team its only regular-season loss in 2008. And it was Pearl's Volunteers who beat the John Wall/DeMarcus Cousins Kentucky team in Knoxville in '10.

So Pearl seemed like the guy to ask whether this is Cal's best team.

"They're better at shooting the ball from the perimeter," Pearl said. "They hunt shots. They want them. If anybody goes zone now, their eyes get big, you know? That's a good thing. Then they throw it down in the post. They can hardly wait for it to get kicked back out.

"And the deal is, they're so much more dominant on the inside, because those guys can score down there. Dakari Johnson and Towns and Trey Lyles, all those guys can score down there. They have a good inside/outside combination.

"I don't know that defensively they're John's best team. … But they're physically overwhelming. I've never seen freshmen that strong, that physical."

Pearl threw out the caution flag at that point, with a nod toward Kentucky's 2012 national championship team – one he did not coach against, after being fired at Tennessee.

"I don't know that this team is that good yet," he said. "They can be."

The 2012 Wildcats didn't have the depth and overall size of this team, but it had star power that this team lacks. Not just Anthony Davis, but Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb. Davis was nowhere near the offensive player then that he is now, but he had the biggest defensive impact of any player in the last eight years at least. (Dating to Greg Oden at Ohio State in 2007.)

Additional historical perspective was supplied Saturday night by former Kentucky great Tony Delk. His "00" number was hung in the rafters, and in a pregame press conference he was asked whether this team could beat the 1996 national champions that he led in scoring.

"I thought our style was a lot different," Delk said. "They are really great at half court. We were great in the full court. We pressed, we turned you over, we scored in the 90s and sometimes in the 100s. So we had a different style than what they are playing right now. They are long and athletic. I thought we were being quicker. We had much better shooters. I will say that."

Delk said that with a smile, since he was the shooter on that 34-2 team. But he's right. And that's not the only differentiating point between the two teams.

The '96 Wildcats were similarly laden with draft picks but also had more veterans, played against other teams with more veterans, and played in a much tougher SEC. The league put four teams in the NCAA tourney that year, and they went 8-0 through the first two rounds. Tubby Smith led Georgia and Nolan Richardson led Arkansas to the Sweet 16 – and then Kentucky and Mississippi State kept going all the way to the Final Four. The SEC's overall NCAA tourney record in '96: 14-3.

Matchups will decide a lot, of course, but it would be a surprise to see any SEC team other than Kentucky in the Sweet 16 this year.

Which gets back to why John Calipari is exhorting, cajoling and driving his team in every game. Even blowouts like this one. The competition eventually will upgrade, as will the stakes and the pressure on a massive NCAA tournament favorite and potential unbeaten team chasing history.

So there is no acceptable reason to relax, no excuse for slacking off in the quest. When Kentucky is up 30-4, the Wildcats are wondering why they gave up the four more than celebrating how they scored the 30.