The day before Kentucky handed Missouri a 27-point loss to open SEC play, Wildcats coach John Calipari was asked about the state of the conference, which had five teams in the top 20 of the Associated Press poll.
“Is the league about as strong as you’ve ever seen it?” asked John Clay, a longtime columnist at the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Admittedly, this isn’t a new query for Calipari. It’s almost an annual ritual for a scribe to ask for his assessment of the conference UK owned over the first five years of his tenure. And as is Calipari’s way, his answer might skirt the edges of the query but really answer a question he wanted to hear.