It had to happen sometime. Time to move on for the Cats.

The first loss of the Calipari era took a lot longer to happen than almost anyone thought it would. Looking at the schedule before the season, I thought we would have two or three losses at this point with such a young team. If someone would have told me before the season that we would start out 19-0, I would have been thrilled and taken that record in a heartbeat!

Take a deep breath Cats fans, we're 19-1, not dropping out of the top 5, almost a lock at this point for a #1 seed, and will probably return to the #1 ranking before the season is over.

It would have been very special to have an undefeated season, however, that is A LOT of pressure on such a young team. I'm actually kind of relieved that the streak is over. A loss now is much easier to take than a loss in March! This team's goal is to win a National Championship, and no matter what the rankings will say next week, there is not a team with more talent. It is up to the Cats, themselves, of what they will accomplish this season. They are just too talented compared to the rest of the field, and the only way they can lose is if they beat themselves, as exhibited last night. As amazing of a performance that Devan Downey had (the only player in college basketball that will really challenge John Wall this year), the Cats still had the game won if they had rebounded better on the defensive end and converted on more open layups on transition.

The young cats are now humbled and will hopefully be more focused the rest of the season, each and every game. I think that you can learn all the same things in a win that you can in a loss and the Cats exhibited this in poor performances early on this season in games in which they were still able to come out with a win, however, a young team like this might have needed the loss. Silly plays, easy missed layups, and letting a smaller South Carolina team dominate the offensive boards lost this game.

With Downey being a neutralizer and somewhat containing Wall and Bledsoe, the Cats needed big production from their big guys. It looked like it was a huge mismatch for the Cats in the post. Demarcus Cousins had a big game offensively, but Patrick Patterson and Daniel Orton had their quietest games of the season and the smaller Gamecocks somehow grabbed 20 offensive rebounds. The Cats needed to know that they can't just rely on John Wall to take over and save the game every single time in the final minutes when they get down. They've known all season that their mistakes have put them in jeopardy of losing games, but they've always relied on Wall to bail them out. Now, they know that a lack of focus can not just put a game on the line, but it can actually lose a game, especially on the road in the SEC. My hope is that the Cats will start to have that killer instinct and put teams away at the 10 minute mark, instead of the 2 minute mark. Give them all the credit in the world for being clutch in every close game but one this season, but their talent needs to start taking over way before the game is in jeopardy.

One thing's for certain: I would not want to be Vanderbilt on Saturday. Coach Cal will have this team as focused and hungry as they've ever been in these last 11 regular season games. We will be #1 again this year. You can count on that.