Kentucky's done flying under the radar

Photo by Dr. Michael Huang | Kentucky Sports RadioFor two and a half months, John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats were an afterthought in college basketball. That sentence may sound like an oxymoron, but it’s true: since losing to Duke on opening night — and failing to beat anyone of consequence in the ensuing weeks — UK basketball has existed on the fringes of the national conversation; good, sure, but not good enough.

It was a perfectly understandable misconception. By virtue of a few odd scheduling quirks (Ohio State pulling out of the CBS Classic, Louisville contracting the heebie-jeebies) and unfortunate injury luck (Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington getting sniped down in Baton Rouge),…