Still perfect, and one more tournament to go

Still perfect, and finally set to get to where it matters most — the NCAA Tournament.

Kentucky continued its pursuit of perfection with an impressive 78-63 over Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game to push its record to 34-0 going into NCAA play.

“Let’s get on with this next tournament,” said Kentucky coach John Calipari. “We know how hard it will be. It will be hard bracket. Nothing wrong with that.”

Not for this dominant Kentucky team that has accepted every challenge and won.

“We haven’t lost one yet. That is ridiculous,” Calipari said in his postgame interview.

He’s right, but this team is ridiculous with the talent it has and the way it shares the glory. He had 11 points Sunday, but he also had six assists — all in the first half.

Remember Aaron Harrison, the hero of last season’s miraculous NCAA Tournament run with his three-game winning shots? He had six assists — all in the first half.

Freshman point guard Tyler Ulis came off the bench to score eight points, but he also had six asissts as UK had 16 assists on 25 made field goals.

Willie Cauley-Stein had his second straight dominant game with 15 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. He was 12-for-15 from the field in the last two games and was named SEC Tournament MVP.

“Willie’s doing great. He’s doing things I didn’t even know he could do, hitting jump shots, dunking — I knew he could do that — but he’s really expanding his game and it’s helping us a lot as a team.”

Point guard Andrew Harrison had “only” two assists, but he was 5-for-9 from the field and had 15 points while attacking the way that Calipari wants.

Kentucky’s defense was UK-like. Arkansas players indicated Saturday they were anxious to play UK — which had a 31-point lead over the Hogs earlier this season before winning by 17 — for a second and had even briefly taunted Ulis after UK’s win over Florida Saturday as he was leaving the court.

"They said a couple things about beating us. That motivated us,” Ulis said.

“A couple of people said when they came in the locker room said they were yelling some stuff like they were going to get revenge and stuff like that, which just fires us up as a team, gets us ready and makes us want to win even more,” Karl-Anthony Towns, who had eight points, four rebounds and one block, said. “We just want to win. We have a target on our back so we’re going to keep doing it and going to have to keep playing like we do.”

The Hogs shot just 9-for-31 in the first half when the issue was all but settled. Kentucky had a 41-25 lead at halftime and even though Arkansas briefly cut it to nine points, the Cats were never really in danger of losing the SEC title game.

One reason UK didn’t wilt was at the foul line where the Cats were 21-for-27 after going 30-for-35 against Florida Saturday. That’s 51-for-62 in the last two games and is key for two reasons — UK shot well and it got to the foul line.

Kentucky also had a Big Blue army in Nashville as UK fans filled Bridgestone Arena three straight games.

“I hope you enjoyed these guys. They did this for you fans,” Calipari told the fans during the postgame celebration.

"We're going to try to win a few more games for you,” Andrew Harrison, who made the all-tourney team along with his brother, told the fans.

That’s why Kentucky left the Bridgestone Arena without cutting down the nets.

“Those aren’t the nets we’re really looking to cut down,” Cauley-Stein said. “It was just a milestone. It’s part of the process for us winning and everything, but we’re looking for something bigger. We’re looking to cut down a couple more nets in the tournament.”

“We’re not done yet, so we’ll get ‘em later,” sophomore Marcus Lee said about leaving the nets intact in Nashville.

That doesn’t mean UK is focusing on an unbeaten season but to win a national title, UK has to win six games and that would complete the perfect year.

“We’re not gonna look at is as 40-0, we’re gonna look at it as making it to that final game and winning it,” freshman guard Devin Booker said. “We haven’t been worried about anything else. We’re taking it one step at a time, so whatever’s in the future is in the future.

“We’re not really worried about a perfect season, we’re worried about winning a national championship. That was our main goal coming in and now we have to win every game to win the national championship. But our ultimate goal is a national championship.”