With his postgame radio show almost done Saturday afternoon, Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari made this final observation after his top-ranked Wildcats' 58-50 win over previously unbeaten, No. 4 Louisville:
"This was their first road game," he said. "They did well."
But can they do better than any college team ever by the end of this season? Can they not only become the first NCAA Division I school since Indiana in 1976 to finish a season unbeaten -- the Hoosiers went 32-0 -- but become the first ever to go 40-0?
Now that Big Blue has won its four nonconference games against ranked opponents by an average of 16.5 points, can any Southeastern Conference foe defeat UK prior to the NCAA tourney, given that no SEC team beyond the Cats is currently ranked?
"That's a great basketball team," said Louisville coach Rick Pitino, whose team shot 25.9 percent from the floor and recorded only one assist in losing a nonconference home game for the first time since 2010.
"They're one of the great defensive teams I've seen in my 40 years. They can switch and not cause a mismatch; they can move their feet; they can block a shot. (Because of their deep bench) they don't have to worry about foul trouble. I think they wore down our defense in the second half."
And the Cardinals entered this game looking no worse than the third best team in the country, right behind fellow unbeatens UK and Duke.
Instead, they were out-rebounded 46-33 and out-assisted 11-1, and they saw the Cats knock down six 3-pointers in 14 attempts (42.9 percent) while they were bricking 11 of 14 (21.4 percent).
Pointing to the five 6-foot-9 or taller UK players whom Calipari played against him, Pitino said, "Their length is pretty incredible."
Still, 13 wins is less than a third of the way home to a perfect 40-0. ESPN's Jeff Goodman noted after Saturday's win that life in conference play is far different, familiarity breeding both contempt and comfortable foes, though Florida did win all 18 of its SEC regular-season games last season, as well as the SEC tournament.
Pointing to a road game against the Gators on Feb. 7, followed by a trip to LSU three nights later, Goodman predicted Kentucky might lose twice in the regular season.
But if their defense holds, if they suffer no more serious injuries after losing junior forward Alex Poythress for the year with a torn ACL and if their offense improves -- they've knocked down 18 3-pointers in their last two games -- the Cats really shouldn't lose any heading into the SEC tournament in Nashville, which will become Big Blue Heaven.
Not that all the Wildcats are ready yet to admit to trying to run the table, especially after "40-0" T-shirts filled the Bluegrass prior to last season before UK lost to Michigan State in mid-November.
"We're not going to think about it," sophomore center Dakari Johnson told The Associated Press after the Louisville game. "We're just going to take one game at a time."
But freshman guard Devin Booker, who's hit 9 of his last 11 3-pointers, saw it differently.
"I feel like if we play good, then nobody can beat us," he told ESPN. "So it's truly up to us. We have to focus on our own game. We can't fall into all we're hearing and all the outside stuff."
Countered Calipari in dissing anyone bold enough to predict an unbeaten season at this point: "They (probably) picked the Germans in World War II."
What is becoming increasingly clear as conference play begins nationwide is that the most powerful teams seem grouped into perfect sets of four at the moment.
There's the Finest Four of Kentucky, Duke, Arizona and Louisville (in that order of superbness).
There's the Formidable Four not far behind them of Virginia, Villanova, Gonzaga and Wisconsin.
There's the Fearless Foursome of Kansas, Texas, Iowa State and Washington, all of them threats to wind up in the first eight.
Then there's the Fearful Foursome, which are teams you want no part of come a one-and-done NCAA tournament: North Carolina, Oklahoma, Maryland and Virginia Commonwealth.
Finally, there's Florida, which is attempting to fight through an unusual number of injuries but should have everyone at full speed by mid-January, just in time to put at least a little pressure on UK.
Yet it's almost impossible not to see both Kentucky and Duke getting No. 1 seeds, the selection committee almost certain to bracket them where the only two schools in the history of college basketball to count nine McDonald's All-Americans on their rosters in a single season -- this season, no less -- wouldn't meet until the national championship game.
And should that happen, former Duke star Christian Laettner's shot that beat the Cats in the 1992 East Regional final will get more air time than "I Love Lucy" reruns.
For now, however, Calipari is trying to savor what is, knowing well that UK's kind of camaraderie and chemistry don't often come along.
"I have the greatest group of kids and parents," he noted Saturday. "Because let me say this, it's not always like this. The moon and the stars have connected. Now let's see what we can do with this."
Or keep doing with it, the possibility of an undefeated champion -- or two unbeatens, Duke and Kentucky -- meeting for the championship just what college basketball so desperately needs to become relevant beyond three weeks in March.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.