Vanderbilt forward Jeffery Taylor (44) drives against Kentucky forward Anthony Davis (23) in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, in Nashville, Tenn. Kentucky won 69-63.SEC RUNAWAYS
Kentucky leads the SEC basketball standings by 3 1/2 games with five games left. Here are the league’s most lopsided races of the past 50 years:YEAR / WINNER (W-L) / RUNNER-UP (W-L)1996 Kentucky (16-0) Miss. State (10-6)1970 Kentucky (17-1) LSU (13-5)1986 Kentucky (17-1) Alabama/Auburn (13-5)1987 Alabama (16-2) Florida (12-6)2003 Kentucky (16-0) Florida (12-4)
It’s no longer a matter of Kentucky winning the Southeastern Conference in basketball this winter but whether the Wildcats can run the table.
Kentucky put a sizable chasm between itself and the rest of the league with triumphs last week over Florida and Vanderbilt. The Wildcats are 11-0 in league play and are off before hosting Ole Miss on Saturday, and they are five wins away from becoming just the third team since 1957 to post a perfect SEC run.
“We are not talking in those terms,” coach John Calipari said Monday. “It might happen. It might not happen. My concern is, ‘Are we improving as a team?’ From what I’m seeing right now is that we are.”
Kentucky went 16-0 in conference contests in 1996, when the Wildcats won the national championship under Rick Pitino, and again in 2003 under Tubby Smith.