KNOXVILLE -- The last time Kentucky junior center Willie Cauley-Stein walked into Thompson-Boling Arena to face Tennessee, he walked out a 30-point loser late in the 2012-13 season.
It was arguably the nadir of UK coach John Calipari's six seasons in the Bluegrass. His top six scorers had departed a season earlier following the school's eighth NCAA championship. The Wildcats' best player had been lost for the season a few days before that Big Orange blowout, eventual lottery pick Nerlens Noel suffering a season-ending knee injury. At least one of the players who entered with Cauley-Stein -- guard Archie Goodwin -- so infuriated Calipari that afternoon that the coach was overheard to exclaim, "I can't coach that player."
If ever there was a time to question Coach Cal's embracing of a one-and-done recruiting model, that embarrassment against the Vols was it.
Now fast-forward to Tuesday night inside the same juiced building, Donnie Tyndall's Volunteers bearing little resemblance to the team that trailed LSU 47-20 at halftime three days earlier.
In fact, when UT took a three-point lead over the nation's last undefeated men's team with four minutes left in the opening half, you kind of half wondered if Cauley-Stein might remain winless inside the Boling Alley, though the Cats and Vols played only once last year, that contest staged in Rupp Arena.
But then Kentucky rallied, staging a 12-5 run the rest of the half to lead by four at the break on its way to a 66-48 win.
Said Cauley-Stein afterward, when asked to recall that 30 point loss two years ago: "Our team is so different from the last two years. When Coach says we're a wolfpack, we really are a wolfpack."
You can get caught up in the Cats' immense talent and lose sight of their camaraderie, of their chemistry, of a cohesiveness on offense and defense that's now produced a school-record 26 wins in 26 contests.
Kentucky scrapped and clawed its way to last year's NCAA championship game, fighting itself almost as much as it fought the opponent. There was never out-and-out dislike among its five freshman starters so much as an undercurrent of discomfort, as if they didn't completely trust one or another. They'd made business decisions to come there based on Cal's ability to move them quickly along to the NBA, and they were professional in every sense of the word. But they never seemed to be having a whole lot of fun until March Madness began.
But before Tuesday's game against UT they were smiling and laughing during warm-ups, obviously enjoying both the wolfpack mentality they've created and the No. 1 national ranking they've held all season.
"We've got this huge target on our back," Cauley-Stein said. "The whole country wants to see us lose. That's what it's been like the whole year."
Cauley-Stein then smiled a small smile and talked about what it's like when a team such as Tennessee gets a three-point lead early, and the Big Orange Nation is going nuts and the opponent seems to sense the upset of the year is about to happen.
"They get beer muscles," he said. "They think they can play with you."
Later told of this quote, Calipari -- who's used the "beer muscles" line more than once -- smiled his own smile and said, "We had three guys on the team that had never heard of 'beer muscles.' I was very happy about that."
Here's a conversation to make any member of Big Blue Nation happy this morning.
When freshman guard Devin Booker, who led UK with 18 points despite missing 11 of 16 shots, was asked about his numerous misses, he replied, "I don't worry about it. I know those shots set up teammates to get offensive rebounds."
Sitting next to him, Cauley-Stein responded thusly: "If (Booker's shots) go down -- awesome. If they don't, we get to pad our rebound stats."
Admittedly, such chemistry is easier to maintain when you're undefeated. Let Booker's bricks cost UK a game and the blithe banter may turn bitter.
Or maybe this is one of those magical seasons that sometimes unfolds in college athletics. Like Auburn's unlikely football championship in 2010. Or UConn's NCAA title run a season ago. Or Villanova's NCAA crown 30 years ago.
Now 26-0, UK already has accomplished something no previous Big Blue bunch has achieved. Win 14 more and it can accomplish something no school has ever done, going 40-0 to win it all.
"When you have this many guys, you just need five to play well," Cal said of his preposterously deep team, which has eight McDonald's All-Americans in uniform. "Who are those five? They've been different every game, and we just ride the five that are playing well."
Tennessee doesn't yet have that luxury. The Vols watched unsung Devon Baulkman come off the bench in the opening half to both knock down a trey and complete a three-point play the old-fashioned way and feel something special might be on their side. That feeling grew when Tariq Owens, thin as an icicle, scored five inside in the first 20 minutes.
"We had 19 offensive rebounds," Tyndall said after his team fell to 14-11 overall and 6-7 in the SEC. "That tells me we were playing really hard. (But) we said before the game there would be three keys: to try and stay even on the glass, which we did. Try to play with 12 turnovers or less, which we didn't quite accomplish (they made 15). Finally, we would have to make a minimum of 10 3-pointers. We were close on the turnovers, we did it on the glass, but we didn't shoot the ball very well."
No, they hit only 2 of 17 trey tries, which is 11.8 percent, which will almost always spell doom against a team as tall and talented as UK.
As he was wrapping up his postgame presser, someone asked Calipari about setting the UK record for longest winning streak to open a season.
"It's incredible stuff," he said. "But there's so much more."
Especially if they can prevent their future foes from growing beer muscles.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.