Hurdles await No. 1 Kentucky

The Kentucky men’s basketball team, full of talent and youthful confidence, has reeled off 15 consecutive wins since losing Dec. 10 at Indiana.

That’s the second- longest winning streak in Division I, behind unbeaten Murray State’s 23.

The caveat for the Wildcats, No. 1 for the third consecutive week in the USA TODAY/ ESPN Coaches Poll: They have not played a ranked team since beating then- No. 4 Louisville on Dec. 31 in Lexington.

The schedule gets tougher starting this week. Kentucky ( 23- 1, 9- 0) plays a Southeastern Conference game against No. 7 Florida ( 19- 4, 7- 1) today in Lexington ( 7 p. m. ET, ESPN).

Nearly all of Kentucky’s remaining opponents are in the top half of the SEC standings, including Vanderbilt on Saturday on the road.

“I’m going to talk to them about, ‘ Let’s make sure we’re being humble here, guys,’ ” coach John Calipari said he would tell his players Monday. “‘ Let’s understand why we’ve been winning, and let’s understand where we have to take this.’

“There’s an easy transition from a swagger to arrogance, and that’s where you get beat.”

Calipari has three freshmen and two sophomores as starters. A young Kentucky team last season reached the Final Four. “That’s what we’re trying to do with this team,” Calipari said.

Freshman Anthony Davis of Chicago, a 6- 10 forward, leads Kentucky in scoring with a 13.9point average, rebounding ( 10.1) and blocked shots ( 4.8). He says he thinks egos will be in check the rest of the way.

“We do have our own swagger, but we know we have to go out and play every game. We have to approach every game the same way: play as hard as we can.”