By Pat Forde
Louisville Courier-Journal

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The imperfect team has authored the perfect Southeastern Conference season. The team that couldn't beat Nike Elite (as coached by Bill Frieder) has beaten all comers in its league.

The team that started 6-3 is now 26-3, a sweet 16-0 in the SEC and the owner of a prime chunk of hoops history. It was able to withstand everything an excellent and inspired opponent could throw at it Saturday, able to get a lead and never relinquish it, able to get the last laugh on the louts in the student section who turned the O'Connell Center into an unnerving chamber of noise.

The University of Kentucky staved off Florida 69-67, scribbling the signature at the bottom of a Tubby Smith masterpiece.

This run is Smith's coaching Picasso. The most important weeks of the season await, but first the Commonwealth owes Tubby a standing ovation.

That's the only problem with the seductive creature that is postseason basketball. It minimizes everything that comes before it - and this run deserves a moment of maximum appreciation.

"Never did I dream we could go undefeated in the SEC," said Mr. Wildcat, equipment manager Bill Keightley.

From Rupp to Hall to Sutton to Pitino to Smith, Keightley has seen some great coaching in person. And he'd rank Smith's work this year with any in his 42 years at UK.

"It's amazing," Keightley said. "It's one of the best coaching jobs I've ever seen."

Winning the 1998 national title was a career achievement, but in some ways this season has been better.

Nobody can say Smith did it with someone else's players. Nobody can say he rode the backs of a roster flush with NBA talent. (There are nine pros on the roster, but they're more likely to play in Belgium than Boston.) Nobody from his famously fickle fan base can pick a single nit with a single move the coach has made in 2003.

Asked if he has ever had a group collectively overachieve like this one, Smith said: "If I did, I don't remember it . . . This team has done it more consistently than any team I've ever coached."

Only two teams have run the table in the SEC since 1956: Kentucky '96 and Kentucky '03. Match up the rosters 1 through 10 on those teams and you might take one current Wildcat, Gerald Fitch over Anthony Epps.

This team is not as good as that UK team and this SEC is not as good as that SEC. But 16-0 is 16-0, sports fans.

Not that it was easy Saturday. Polishing off perfection isn't supposed to be a stroll.

Florida shot 53 percent from the field, second-best this season against UK, and still spent the final 32 minutes unsuccessfully playing catch-up. That's because this Kentucky team plays smart and unselfish offensive basketball. With the Gators clamping down inside, the Cats stroked nine of 17 three-point shots.

Then they made it stand up in the final minute with the program staple: defense. Marquis Estill took a huge charge. The ubiquitous Chuck Hayes tipped a pass, forcing a turnover. And on the final possession, Cliff Hawkins dogged Florida's Anthony Roberson up the court and forced an air ball at the final gun.

Warren Sapp, who knows a little about tough "D," visited the UK locker room to congratulate the Cats. It was there, behind closed doors, that the magnitude of the moment hit.

"Everyone just rejoiced," forward Chuck Hayes said. "We had to celebrate this moment because it doesn't happen often."

Let the history record it. The imperfect team has authored the perfect SEC season.