Kentucky battled with North Carolina in the race to 2,000 wins, it went toe-to-toe with perennial national contender Connecticut in Madison Square Garden and slugged it out with archrival Louisville.But believe it or not, Saturday’s game with Vanderbilt might be the toughest game to date. Yes, the so-called “nerds” of the Southeastern Conference can ball. In fact, they might be the Cats’ biggest hurdle in winning a conference title.Vanderbilt (17-3, 5-0 SEC) heads into Saturday’s top-25 showdown playing its best ball of the year. After an early December two-game losing streak, the Commodores have reeled off 10 straight wins by an 18.3 average margin of victory.At 5-0 and fresh off an 85-76 victory over No. 14 Tennessee, Vandy is off to its best start in SEC play since the 1965-66 season. “This (Vanderbilt team) reminds me of my UMass teams,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “Just a team that five guys, three guys off the bench, they all know what their jobs are, they make shots. They’re tough. They’re not beating themselves. You’re either beating them or they beat you.”Vanderbilt’s start should come as no surprise. The ‘Dores started the season ranked in the top 25 before suffering an early loss to Cincinnati in the Maui Invitational.At the time, All-SEC selection A.J. Ogilvy wasn’t quite 100 percent and head coach Kevin Stallings was still trying to find a core rotation in an extremely deep and talented basketball team.Since finding that rotation, the ‘Dores have been the most underrated team in the country.”The things that we’ve done well this year are they have responded to what the coaches have asked for,” Stallings said. “We went through a stretch early in the season where rebounding was a problem. We’ve addressed that and we’ve gotten better. We went through a stretch where we turned the ball over a lot. We’ve addressed that and that’s gotten better. We went through a stretch where our defense was not as good as it needed to be. We addressed that and that’s gotten better. …”They’ve just been very good about responding to the things we’ve asked them to do.”Vanderbilt is solid in just about every phase of the game. The Commodores out-rebound their opponents by nearly three boards a game, shoot 49.8 percent from the floor and hold their opposition to just 40.4 percent shooting.The roster might lack star power, but the guard-heavy lineup isn’t short on talent when you consider the names of Ogilvy, Jeffery Taylor, Jermaine Beal and five-star recruit John Jenkins. All four score more than 10 points per game.”You can’t worry about one guy,” Calipari said. “Every guy that they have can shoot 3s, can bounce the ball, can pass the ball. Everybody is a basketball player, and they’re physically tough. You’re not going to out-punk them. That isn’t happening. None of that stuff is working in this game. They’re a veteran team and they’re tough.”And of all the teams UK (19-1, 4-1 SEC) has played this season, who would you think has Kentucky’s number more than any other team of late?Yes, you guessed it. It’s the “nerds” of the SEC. Heading into Saturday’s game, they’ve won six of their last eight vs. UK. That’s troubling news considering UK is coming off its first loss of the season, a 68-62 loss to South Carolina in the program’s first game the No. 1 team in the country in seven years. To counter adversity for the first time this season and retake the top spot in the SEC, Calipari said he must get more involved in the game. That includes calling more timeouts and taking some pressure off John Wall and Patrick Patterson. “This should be on me,” Calipari said. “Let me get these guys playing right. We went down there and it looked like there was some anxiety from some guys.”Perhaps a burden to stay undefeated and build on some unrealistic dreams that the rest of the nation was starting to whisper in their ears. With those expectations gone, Calipari is hoping that now they can go back out on the court and just play ball.”Now we’re not going to be undefeated,” Calipari said. “(Now) it’s about us getting better. Winning and losing shouldn’t be as big of a part in their mind. Anxiety comes from trying to be result-oriented. In other words, we have to win. It’s like you’re playing golf and before the match starts you’re saying, ‘I have to win this.’ Well, good, your first ball is off a car in the parking lot. …Calipari called Tuesday’s loss an opportunity to learn, not only for his team but for himself as well. It’s a chance to understand that one loss isn’t the end of the world for either he or his first-time players.”This may have been good for me – forget them – to say, ‘Hey, man, would you cool out and coach your team and get them better and figure out what you’ve got to do,’ ” said Calipari, who sat in his hotel room Tuesday night in Charlotte, N.C., sweating. “It’s all how you take this stuff.”Still, Calipari would have rather have figured that out without the consequence of a loss.”I hate to lose,” Calipari said. “I would have liked to have won them all.”Getting back on the winning track could not have come at a worse time with a streaking Vanderbilt coming to town.