Getting behind Kentucky's infuriating quest for perfection

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This is what I want, if it's not too much to ask -- and it isn't. It would be one of the greatest stories in the history of college basketball, but it's absolutely possible:

I want Kentucky to go undefeated. SEC Tournament, Final Four, national title. The whole thing. Your undefeated 2009-10 national champion, the Kentucky Wildcats. Starring John Wall. Coached by John Calipari.

John Calipari's super frosh John Wall is averaging 18.1 ppg and 7.1 apg. (US Presswire)

Biggest story in college basketball history? It would be right up there with underdog North Carolina State in 1983 and hot dog Pistol Pete Maravich in 1967 and the top-dog UCLA teams of Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton from the 1960s and '70s. Kentucky winning it all, and losing never, would be that big.

The media would hate it, but that makes me want it even more. Media groupthink has decided John Calipari is a bad guy, but media groupthink also decided Texas should play Alabama for the college football championship, and that the running back from Alabama is the best player in the country. Media groupthink is silly.

Kentucky going undefeated this season? Sure, that could be silly. It's a reach. Which is why I'm making this as clear as I can make it: I'm not predicting Kentucky will be the undefeated national champion. Sorry about having to write that sentence, and if it insults your reading comprehension, blame it on fans of the Minnesota Vikings.

See, before this NFL season began, I wrote that the ideal development in Minnesota -- after Brett Favre had jerked around the Jets by "retiring" and jerked around the Packers by joining arch-rival Minnesota -- would be for incumbent Tarvaris Jackson to beat out Favre for the starting QB job. I didn't predict it. Didn't promise it. Didn't say it should happen. Just said, "Wouldn't that be cool?"

Vikings fans missed all of that. To this day, they write me mocking letters wanting to know if I still think Jackson is better than Favre. Sigh. In hindsight, my hope -- Jackson over Favre -- was never going to happen. But Kentucky going undefeated and winning the 2010 national title? Silly as it is, it just might.

The 10-0 Wildcats are more than one-fourth of the way there, and the toughest games on the schedule have already happened. They've beaten No. 10 North Carolina and No. 14 Connecticut, and they've handled an unpredictable rivalry game with Indiana. Louisville and the SEC are left, but Louisville is down and has to visit Rupp Arena on Jan. 2 -- and not one SEC team is in the top 30 of the RPI.

John Wall has been better than advertised -- and if you read CBSSports.com college basketball expert Gary Parrish this preseason, you know the advertising was pretty strong. Parrish said Wall would be the best freshman in college basketball. And the best player in the SEC. And the best player in the whole damn country.

Gary Parrish was right.

John Wall is Derrick Rose with better size. He's Eric Gordon with better ball control. He's Dwyane Wade, is what he is. Maybe not Dwyane Wade now, seeing how Wade is currently one of the five best players on the planet. But Wall is as good as the Dwyane Wade who led Marquette to the 2003 Final Four. Maybe better.

With a guy like that, a guy who is the best player in the country for the game's first 36 minutes and then even better for the final four minutes, anything is possible. Leading his team to perfection? It's possible. Unlikely, sure. But possible -- because Wall isn't the only NBA player on that roster. Freshman guard Eric Bledsoe will play in David Stern's league sooner or later, and freshman center DeMarcus Cousins will be a first-round pick whenever he enters the NBA draft.

Oh, and junior forward Patrick Patterson. Almost forgot about him. He's on pace for 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, unless he turns pro after this season, which is possible considering he's a potential lottery pick. And Patterson is just part of the supporting cast. So is sophomore Darius Miller, a 6-foot-7 wing whose arrival last year was simply enormous news in Kentucky. Enormous news last year, role player this year.

That's how good Kentucky is. Because that's how good John Calipari is.

And that's how good this story would be. Kentucky basketball, one year after imploding under Billy Gillispie, isn't just headed for the NCAA tournament. It entered Final Four-or-bust territory after Calipari put together this dynamite roster in a matter of months.

Along the way, the NCAA dropped the hammer on Calipari's former team and vacated Memphis' appearance in the 2008 Final Four because of issues surrounding Derrick Rose's academics in high school. Calipari has now led two schools to the Final Four -- Memphis in 2008, UMass in 1996 -- and seen the NCAA eradicate both. Fair or not, right or wrong, that's the reality.

Imagine, then, this coach winning the national title this year -- and not losing a game along the way. Kentucky would replace Bob Knight's 1976 Indiana Hoosiers as the last team to go undefeated. From his perch at ESPN, Knight would be miserable. From its perch in Indianapolis, the NCAA would be miserable. Memphis would hate it. Louisville would hate it. Indiana wouldn't believe it. The media would moan.

College basketball would be united -- this would be the most infuriating story imaginable.

Please let it happen. Please?