Instant Analysis: Cats peaking?

Kentucky looked good on the road against Arkansas and then at home against Vanderbilt.

They played their best game of the year against Missouri on Wednesday night in an 88-54 win that probably could have been an even wider margin.

This was the Kentucky team that everyone expected to see before the season started.

Forget the three-point woes that plagued the team for the majority of the season. The Cats shot an efficient and deadly 9-20 from behind the arc with Tyler Ulis, Jamal Murray and Derek Willis all connecting on multiple threes.

Those free throw problems? They seem like a distant memory. Kentucky had shot better than 75-percent from the line in the previous three games heading into Wednesday night's match with the Tigers, and they were strong again, hitting on 11-14.

Isaiah Briscoe's 5-9? Not just padded by easy layups. He drills long-range jumpers.

Willis' transformation seems complete, knock on wood, and he threw down a thundering dunk to go along with his long-range flurry of threes.

Skal Labissiere found his rhythm on the pick and pop, bouncing back from just four minutes played against Vanderbilt with an impressive 12 points on an efficient 6-8 from the field. And he looked as comfortable as he's looked since, well, Arkansas.

The Cats did turn it over 11 times - not that the number is bad, it's just more than the ridiculously low total of 13 over the previous two games combined.

Tyler Ulis was as good as he's been and made easy shots look easy.

Don't get too far ahead of yourself if you, as a fan, start dreaming of championship front runner status. Missouri is probably the worst team in the SEC, and all of its flaws were on full display.

The Tigers were disrupted by Kentucky's stifling defense right from the start and they looked intimidated after Kentucky started a perfect 5-5 from behind the arc.

Putting aside Missouri's woes, which are real, no other team in the SEC had beaten the Tigers as badly as Kentucky did. Arkansas did, almost. But this throttling was the worst handed to the Tigers this year. And that means something.

Kentucky has struggled with consistency as a team just as Alex Poythress has his entire career. But that narrative now seems to be morphing into a new one: A team that's finding itself as players find their roles behind the leadership and steady play of Ulis. Open shots are going down, that lock down defense on display against Duke seems to be returning, and these Cats are finding out that they really can deal with prosperity. That's something they hadn't done before.

Most importantly, they seem to be developing a killer instinct that's been lacking. Against their last three opponents - Arkansas, Vanderbilt and now Missouri - the Cats have built a lead, grown it, and kept it. That's important as they head into some tougher games in the near future, notably against Kansas in just a few days.

It's tough to come out with competitive fire when you're ahead 47-20 at the half, but the team and the Rupp Arena crowd smelled blood and actually responded with a half that expanded the lead. And that doesn't always happen. For this team it hasn't often happened this year.

Inconsistencies may still lie ahead. On this night just about everyone brought their 'A game' or something close to it. That's not going to happen in every game the rest of the way. But now we know, and Kentucky's players know, that it can happen. And when it does these Cats don't have much of a ceiling.