The Wildcats celebrate their win over North Carolina on Saturday. (Chet White, UK Athletics)

When you’re at Kentucky and you start threatening records that have stood for more than a half-century, you’re doing some good things.The Wildcats, if they beat UCLA by 10 or more points on Saturday, would become the first team in school history to defeat its first 12 opponents by double digits. With a win over North Carolina last weekend, UK matched the record of 11 straight double-digit wins to start the 1946-47 season.With that, UK ranks first in the nation in scoring margin, beating opponents by an average of 28.2 points per game. Unsurprisingly, the Wildcats have only strengthened their grip on the top spot in both major polls, claiming 29 of 31 first-place votes in the coaches’ poll and all 65 in the AP Top 25. No team since Duke in 2010-11 has been a unanimous No. 1 in the AP poll at this point in the season.Computer rankings tell a similar story of UK’s dominance. The Cats are ranked No. 1 according to all but seven of 41 major college basketball ranking systems compiled by masseyratings.com as of Sunday, topping the RPI, the Sagarin Ratings and 32 others.UK is also No. 1 Ken Pomeroy’s ratings with a Pythagorean win percentage (expected win percentage against an average Division-I team based on offensive and defensive efficiency) of .9719. That’s the second-highest Pythagorean win percentage in the 14-year history of Pomeroy’s rankings, trailing 2007-08 Kansas’ .9753. The Cats are also third nationally in offensive efficiency and second in defensive efficiency, making them the first team since that same Kansas squad to be in the top three of both.Of course it’s early, but UK has only climbed in Pomeroy’s rankings so far this season. If the Cats keep up their pace, they could be in line to make some history on that front.That’s also the case when it comes to the Basketball Power Index. ESPN released its first BPI ratings of the season on Tuesday and the Cats are No. 1 by a wide margin. With a BPI of 96.0, UK is well ahead of No. 2 Virginia at 92.9. For perspective, the highest BPI in the four-year history of the rating system was 2011-12 Kentucky at 92.4. That team, as you might remember, was pretty good.Perhaps most amazing when it comes to the BPI is UK’s consistency. The Cats are dead last among 351 teams nationally in variance, meaning their performance level so far this season has changed less from game to game than any other team in America.Computer ratings don’t do it for you? How about raw stats? Here are all the major categories in which UK ranks in the top 20 nationally according to NCAA.com and kenpom.com.Scoring margin – 1st (28.2 points)Field-goal percentage defense – 1st (.304)2-point field-goal percentage defense – 1st (.325)Block percentage – 1st (.240)Offensive-rebounding percentage – 1st (.463)Effective height – 1st (plus-6.8)Average height – 1st (79.6 inches)Effective field-goal percentage defense – 2nd (.351)Points per possession allowed – 2nd (0.736)Blocks per game – 2nd (8.3)Percentage of minutes played by bench – 2nd (.454) Scoring defense – 2nd (48.0)Turnover margin – 5th (5.9)Defensive turnover percentage – 9th (.262)Defensive assist percentage – 9th (.419)Total assists – t-9th (183)Rebound margin – 11th (10.6)Assist-to-turnover ratio – 13th (1.49)Free-throw attempts – 13th (267)Offensive rebounds per game – 13th (15.18)Points per possession scored – 14th (1.158)Free throws made – t-15th (177)3-point field-goal percentage defense – t-16th (.267)More than a third of the way through the regular season, this looks like one special team.

Related Stories

View all