Tubby Smith and Kentucky are naturally conflicted. The coach is preternaturally patient, and his fan base is notoriously impatient.

That is why Smith's annual slow starts have been met with great howling and gnashing of teeth, year after year. You cannot convince Kentucky fans that December or even November are too early to demand perfection, which is why fans will boo a team off their home court after, say, losing an exhibition game. Or why they can begin speculating en masse about who will replace Smith when he's routed by arch-rival Louisville Dec. 28.

	Tubby Smith has the 'Cats on an 19-game winning streak.

At that point the Wildcats were 6-3 and seemingly headed to another year of perdition, and Big Blue Nation seemed to regard Smith's departure as an inevitability. They haven't lost since. Today, on the money end of an 19-game winning streak and toting a 25-3 record and No. 2 ranking into the final week of the regular season, the Cat People regard Smith as the smartest coach in the nation. (Pending the next loss, of course.)

"I'm kind of amazed myself," said the coach.

Amazing that a team lacking a sure-fire NBA prospect could roll toward the postseason as one of the two teams demonstrably better than everyone else (alongside Arizona).

Amazing that a team without a serious first-team or second-team All-America candidate is within two games of running the table in a conference universally regarded as the best or second-best league in the land. (The last -- and only other -- team to go 16-0 in the SEC was Kentucky in 1996, a roster so flush that eight of its players spent time in the NBA.)

Amazing that a group that lost at home to NIT candidate Michigan State, was beaten handily on a neutral court by NIT hopeful Virginia and routed on the road by the slumping Cardinals hasn't faced a single truly dire moment in 15 SEC games. (Since a defensive epiphany after halftime at Vanderbilt on Jan. 14, the Wildcats have trailed for a total of less than two second-half minutes -- and never by more than three points.)

Given those facts, it only goes to show how understated the coach is when good things are happening. It's almost as if acknowledging his team's roll will jeopardize it.

"Playing pretty good," Tubby said Sunday in Athens, Ga., as he hugged his son, Saul, a member of the NBDL franchise in Columbus, Ga.

And that was all he had to say about his team to his son, the former Kentucky point guard.

"I think it's been pretty fun for him," Saul said of his dad. "As a coach you want to see your team mature, and he's seen his team become men."

The maturation process has been dramatic for the Cats. Keith Bogans has gone from a junior train wreck to a remarkably steady senior leader. Gerald Fitch has gone from three separate suspensions as a sophomore to a rock of consistency as a junior. Erik Daniels, Chuck Hayes and Marquis Estill have come together from individual semi-obscurity to form the most aggressive and physical front line in America, routinely outrebounding opponents and making life arduous in the paint.

"That's our game," said Hayes, a sophomore who leads the team in rebounding, ranks second in steals and third in assists. "Beating our man to the ball, beating them on the block, hustling, elbowing, bullying them around."

Hayes exemplifies the dramatic turnaround of this Kentucky team from last year to this. If Rashaad Carruth poisoned last year's locker room, Hayes has been the panacea this time around.

The two arrived in Lexington from vastly different purviews. Carruth was a must-have recruit, courted by only the biggest and best programs. Hayes was a Parade All-American, but few people expected him to be anywhere near the player Carruth was.

Carruth turned out to be an all-world cancer and has since become a two-time Division I washout, being asked to leave at Kentucky and tossed at Oklahoma. Hayes has led Kentucky in floor burns and bruises, and quietly become indispensable to the No. 2 team in America.

"He's a kid we can't hardly play without," Smith said.

These days Kentucky can't hardly play without its winning streak becoming a major topic, but Smith is urging his team to ignore it. Nice as it would be, going undefeated in conference play guarantees nothing in the Big Dance. A perfect league record guarantees one thing: A No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed. It doesn't guarantee a happy ending in April.

Kansas went 16-0 in the Big 12 last year and lost in the Final Four. Cincinnati went 16-0 in Conference USA in 2000 and lost in the second round, undone by Kenyon Martin's broken leg. Duke ran the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1999 and lost the title to Connecticut.

Last major-conference team to go undefeated in league play AND win it all: '96 Kentucky, and those Cats were aided in their title run by a stunning SEC Tournament loss to Mississippi State.

Would a loss between now and Selection Sunday actually be beneficial? Maybe so. But it's hard to say as much when you're on the winning side of a roll like this.

"It's unbelievable," point guard Cliff Hawkins said. "We just can't believe how well we've been playing."

Games of the Week

Kentucky at Florida Saturday The SEC knew what it was doing when it paired these two up in the regular-season finale. Both are in the top five, and both aspire to be in the top four when the NCAA Selection Committee divvies up seeds for the Big Dance. Wildcats have won three straight against the Gators, including an annihilation in February one day after Florida reached No. 1 for the first time. Alabama at LSU Saturday Bubble battle between two teams that looked spectacular way back in December but have endured tough times in conference play. Both have quality non-conference wins but losing league records. Auburn at Mississippi State Saturday Title in the weak-link Western Division could be on the line. Cincinnati at Marquette Saturday Golden Eagles are the new Bearcats: physical, resourceful and tough as can be. A win here by Cincinnati would be a major upset, given their offensive travails. Memphis at UAB Saturday The Blazers began the week surprisingly in the hunt for the fourth Conference USA tournament first-round bye. But the Tigers are the hottest team in the league, and a potential March monster.

Thrilling win, damaging allegations
Georgia fans flooded the Stegeman Coliseum court Tuesday night after the Bulldogs' thrilling one-point upset of Florida, momentarily sweeping embattled coach Jim Harrick away in ecstasy. "We needed it worse than Billy (Donovan) needed it," Harrick said.

Unfortunately for Harrick, he had to wake up Wednesday and return to reality: His job is in serious jeopardy after explosive and damaging allegations of payoffs and academic fraud from former point guard Tony Cole.

Harrick mounted a spirited and emphatic defense in an ESPN interview with Dick Vitale before the Florida game Tuesday, alluding to Cole's dubious credibility.

But not every question was answered. Harrick declined to offer an explanation for the most damning charge, a receipt for a $300 Western Union money transfer that Cole said was from assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr. to pay Cole's phone bill in July 2001. That and other allegations were enough to get the younger Harrick suspended with pay last week.

Harrick's response to the money transfer was that "it will all come out." But his initial explanation, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was that the money came through the Dale Brown Foundation, which had given Cole money in the past. However, Brown, the former coach at LSU, denied sending any money to Georgia for Cole. Harrick later claimed that the newspaper misunderstood or misquoted him on the matter, but the Journal-Constitution said it stands by its reporting.

Harrick also said that he'd "never heard one word" from Rhode Island about claims of wrongdoing there before he got to Georgia. But later in the Vitale interview he acknowledged receiving a phone call from the athletic director at Rhode Island about an issue that the school had taken care of. Harrick said he didn't even know what the issue was.

"Ask any of my former players if we've ever done anything for them," Harrick challenged Vitale.

You don't have to go far to find at least one instance of Harrick doing something impermissible for two of his players, and it cost him his job at UCLA just 19 months after leading the Bruins to the 1995 national title. Harrick picked up a four-figure dinner tab for recruits and UCLA players and misrepresented who was present at the dinner, omitting the names of two players whose presence was a violation and instead saying that Harrick's wife and the wife of an assistant coach ate dinner. Harrick also encouraged the assistant, Michael Holton, to help cover up the facts surrounding the dinner. It wasn't an earth-shattering violation, but UCLA terminated Harrick after it said it questioned him repeatedly and found that he lied eight times about the the dinner.

So the credibility issues cut both ways in this one. And Harrick has a lot more to lose than his accuser.

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