GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Tournament basketball is the most seductive of sporting entities, something that can minimize everything that happened before it. The Big Dance obscures the months of drama that serve as prelude.

But Kentucky fans are encouraged to briefly take their eyes off the big prize, to take a moment and relish what their team has just accomplished.

	Cliff Hawkins and Kentucky raced out to a big lead, but had to hang on Saturday to beat Florida.

The Wildcats staved off inspired Florida 69-67 Saturday to complete a sweet 16-0 run through the Southeastern Conference. A highly imperfect team constructed a perfect league record. From 6-3 to 26-3, it's been a rhapsodic run.

"I couldn't imagine this if you asked me at the beginning of the year," guard Keith Bogans said. "A lot of people picked us third in the East."

And fifth in the league. And generally somewhere outside the top 15 in the nation. And bereft of a single player who the NBA absolutely, positively has to have in the first round of its draft.

But Kentucky not only won the league, it ran the table -- just the second time it's been done since 1956 (UK's '96 national champions also went 16-0.) It is ranked No. 2 in America and breathing down Arizona's neck. And it just might be the team to beat when the brackets are released in a week on Selection Sunday.

Pretty remarkable when you consider where this group was on New Year's Day.

The 'Cats had just been drummed by Louisville, adding to a home defeat against Michigan State and a 13-point loss at Maui to Virginia. (We won't even mention the exhibition loss to Nike Elite, coached by the immortal Bill Frieder.) Smith was catching more heat than solar panels in the Mojave Desert. And the rest of the SEC just flat looked better.

Kentucky looked like a team in danger of being left behind by the likes of Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi State. Instead the western half of the league collapsed, and Cats metamorphosed into a defensive juggernaut during a dire situation at Vanderbilt on Jan. 14. They haven't slowed down since.

This 16-0 run was shockingly simple -- they've trailed for less than two minutes in the second half of their past 14 games -- in a conference some say is the best in America.

Asked if he's 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.

"To do something very few teams have done puts ... a real stamp on this team. All the future Kentucky teams will measure themselves by this team."

But finishing off this history-making run wasn't easy.

The Gators hit Kentucky with everything they had: Senior Day, a juiced crowd and revenge-generated motivation after being humiliated in Rupp Arena last month. Florida shot 53 percent from the field, second-best all season against the Wildcats -- and still trailed for the final 32 minutes of the game.

That's because this group plays at a higher level offensively than any of Smith's past three teams.

"Give them credit," Florida's David Lee said. "What makes them so good is that they're so unselfish."

Kentucky takes smart shots, passes crisply, rebounds its misses and can make a defense pay for overloading in any particular area.

The Gators clamped down on center Marquis Estill, so it was up to the perimeter to respond. Kentucky responded by nailing nine of 17 3-point shots, including bombs from the unlikely trio of Chuck Hayes (1-for-1), Cliff Hawkins (1-for-1) and Antwain Barbour (2-for-4, after making just one 3 in the past five weeks).

	“	To do something very few teams have done puts ... a real stamp on this team. All the future Kentucky teams will measure themselves by this team. ”
		— Tubby Smith

"Barbour's jacking them up and I'm like, 'This is unbelievable,'" Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "Hawkins made one in front of me. Hayes made one. But you've got to give them credit. That's the sign of a great team that somebody steps up when you need it."

For six years, Smith has had to listen to Kentucky fans grumble about his team's inability to shoot the 3 like Donovan's run-and-gun squads. Of the two former Rick Pitino assistants, Billy D always has been a more faithful disciple to the style of play that enraptured the commonwealth in the 1990s.

But get this stat from the two Florida-Kentucky games this year: 16 3s for the Wildcats, eight for the Gators. Florida's three 3s Saturday were a season low.

Game, set and match to TubbyBall.

But when Kentucky wobbled in the final minutes, watching a 12-point lead melt to one, it held on with the program trademark: defense.

Marquis Estill took a huge charge from Christian Drejer ("I don't even want to deal with that call," Donovan said). The omnipresent Hayes tipped a pass and created a turnover. And on the final possession, Hawkins shadowed Anthony Roberson upcourt and forced him to shoot an airball at the gun.

When it was over the 'Cats mugged for the foaming O'Connell Center student section, then retreated to the locker room to celebrate. Warren Sapp, who knows a little about playing championship-caliber defense, visited to pay his regards.

(Sapp was sitting in the same section as Kentucky uberfan Ashley Judd and thoroughbred owner W.T. Young. It might've been the wealthiest fan section at any college basketball game all season.)

And when the Wildcats got together behind closed doors, their accomplishment hit home.

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

Pat Forde of the Louisville Courier-Journal is a regular contributor to ESPN.com