Kentucky looked to be rocking and rolling early on this season with its young core of skill players. A second straight win over a Steve Spurrier-coached South Carolina team (this time in Columbia), a close loss to a Florida team whose talent was evident even during a boring game with only 23 total points and a win over then-ranked Missouri, the two-time defending SEC East champion.

Something should have become clear after UK’s overtime victory over Eastern Kentucky: either the team needed someone to humble them in lieu of their newfound success, or two SEC victories did not mean the ‘Cats were out of the conference basement yet.

The events which have unfolded since then have pointed to the latter as the more likely option. Neither the South Carolina win nor the Missouri win are carrying much weight now. Spurrier is obviously no longer with the Gamecocks, and though they are playing with a newfound energy under interim head coach Shawn Elliott, South Carolina is not a real threat to any of the conference heavyweights as they have been in years past.

Missouri, similarly, demonstrated an inability to put points on the board even before they came to Lexington. The Tigers were able to eke out a 9-6 victory at home over a suspect Connecticut team and have shown no signs of improvement since. Though they were able to “explode” for 24 points against South Carolina, their point outputs include 6 against Georgia and 3 against both Florida and Vanderbilt. All three games resulted in losses for Gary Pinkel’s squad.

It should be noted that Vanderbilt, who is regularly the butt of SEC bottom-feeding jokes, lost to South Carolina but beat Missouri. Meanwhile, Mizzou beat South Carolina before losing in Nashville. A true gridlock of mediocrity.

In all honesty, the SEC is as down this year as it has ever been, from top to bottom. I do not live under a rock, and thus I realize LSU, Alabama and Florida are playing as well as anyone in the country right now. As it became clear that the SEC isn’t as thick as it has been in years past, the dreamers in Lexington put down the preseason basketball magazines and began to reel off the seven, eight, nine games they truly believed their ‘Cats had a chance to win. The fact of the matter is Kentucky is as pedestrian as the rest of the conference this year. They have demonstrated such in the shellackings they have received at the hands of Mississippi State and Tennessee the last two weeks.

Georgia is not immune to the plague of mediocrity sweeping the conference this year, and as such UK may actually have a chance in Athens this Saturday, but I don’t have anywhere near the same level of confidence in picking the Wildcats in any of their remaining four games (except Charlotte) as I did four weeks ago.

Pretty or not, bowl eligibility would be a huge step for the Wildcats faithful. It has been a long seven years since Big Blue Nation had its last taste of postseason glory, and just about anything would quench their thirst at this point.