Fresh off its national championship appearance a season ago, the Louisville Cardinals had claimed the title of the premier program in the state. With one mind-boggling defensive effort, the Kentucky women’s basketball team stole that distinction back – literally.The Cats, now off to the best start in program history at 10-0, smothered the Cardinals with one of the best defensive performances – if not the best – in school history. UK forced a season-high 38 turnovers on 21 steals, stunning U of L 101-67 in front of a season-high crowd of 7,323 fans at Memorial Coliseum.The UK win snapped a five-game losing streak to the Cards.”I just left a really happy group of Wildcats in the locker room,” UK Hoops head coach Matthew Mitchell said. “I just couldn’t be more pleased and proud of them because they absolutely earned a big victory today with incredible enthusiasm, incredible energy and incredible effort. It was a real good day for our team. I’m really happy for them because they’ve worked extremely hard.”In a game billed as a heavyweight showdown of the state’s two top teams, it was clearly a first-round knockout.Kentucky blitzed Louisville from the get-go, forcing seven turnovers before the first media timeout in racing to a 14-6 lead. Although the game was bizarrely long from that point on – thanks in part to 35 Louisville team fouls – the outcome was already determined.A recap: (insert player) stole the ball, (insert player) raced the length of the floor, (insert player) laid it in. That happened more times than Louisville head coach Jeff Walz wanted to think about. It was enough to cause nightmares.”We do two things really very well right now,” Walz said, “and that’s foul and turn the ball over.”Legendary Arkansas head coach Nolan Richardson used to call his full-court press “40 minutes of hell.” Richardson’s in-your-face defense might have seemed like a stroll in the park compared to Kentucky’s relentless defense. The Cats stole the ball like a three-time felon.”We got out there for 40 minutes,” junior point guard Amber Smith said. “We were not satisfied after the first 20 minutes when we forced over 20 turnovers. We went back out in the second half. Even though we started out kind of sluggish, we got back in to what we were doing which was being intense on the defensive end. That is how we got our lead. We stick with what we know best.”Louisville has a bit of an excuse. It lost WNBA first-round pick Angel McCoughtry to the pros after last season’s run, and it was without its two top point guards, including this year’s expected starter, Deseree’ Byrd, due to injuries. Yet there was no masking the changing of the guard in the Commonwealth. It was more about Kentucky’s defensive domination than it was Louisville’s lack of players. It’s been the story all year.With an up-tempo offense and suffocating defense, no team is playing better in the state and quite possibly around it. “We’re maybe not the best in the country, but we’re team that really, really works hard and tries every day,” Mitchell said.Mitchell said the effort has been the difference with this team, a squad that is undoubtedly the best one he’s had in his third year at UK. It’s fit for Mitchell’s fast-paced, full-court system.”We thought they had the advantage with size and strength and so our plan was to try to take advantage of our speed and quickness and athleticism,” Mitchell said. “Our team works very hard on defensive fundamentals and footwork, so we were able to get some good traps. It was tough on Louisville today. The players, I thought they did the best job all year of staying in a stance and staying in position.”As good as the offense has been, UK’s defense is its best offense. It opens up easy transition baskets, and Sunday was no different. The Cats scored 39 points off turnovers.  “I have thought all season long, and I think that if a person was to come and watch us play (they would think the same thing), that it wasn’t like we were playing bad teams and beating them by six or seven points,” Mitchell said. “We have been in the right position on defense and we have given consistent energy.”Three players recorded four steals or more, including a career-high eight for Victoria Dunlap.As a result, four Cats reached double figures and more would have likely reached the double-digit plateau had UK shot its layups better (the Cats only shot 39.7 percent from the field). Dunlap, in typical fashion, led all scorers with 27 points and nine rebounds and Smith chipped in with 19 points. “You can’t play (Dunlap) one-on-one,” Walz said. “She’s as good a post player as we’ve played all year – and that’s counting Tennessee.”Mitchell said they had no other expectations other than to win, but with 38 turnovers and a 34-point victory, they had to be surprised, right? “I was not surprised because of how hard we practiced,” Smith said. “The word of the week was focus. Coach Mitchell gave us that word after our last game. He told us it was not about what Louisville was going to do but what we were going to do today. I love my teammates and I had all the confidence in them so I was not surprised by the outcome at all.”With a signature outcome and the program’s best start in hand, might it be time to announce that women’s basketball is squarely back on the map in Lexington, Ky.?”I think we are really good,” Dunlap said. “We play great defense together. If people see how hard we play they will understand as well. We have a great confidence.”This we do know: Defense rules and UK Hoops is back on top in the state of Kentucky.