Should UK Lose a Game Before the NCAA Tournament?

Since 1976--the last time we saw an undefeated college hoops season (courtesy of the Indiana Hoosiers)--no team has entered the NCAA Tournament with fewer than 2 losses and won the thing.

That list includes some great teams like UNLV '91, Indiana State '79 (with Larry Byrd), Duke '99, and Illinois '05.

Clearly ANY team that enters the Big Dance with a "1" or "0" in the loss column is a great team. Those are just the stand-outs to me.

So here we are on February 16th, less than a month away from Selection Sunday...a day when everyone will hear Kentucky's name called as the overall #1 seed.

(Book it. They'll be that.)

And the Wildcats are 25-0. It's been a remarkable season.

But based on that "fewer-than-two-losses" statistic, a certain question has been posed with greater frequency over the past few weeks:

Should Kentucky lose a game (or two) before entering the NCAA Tournament?

The answer? Well...I don't think there is one. There is absolutely no tangible evidence that having those two losses definitively means you're chances of winning the tournament have increased exponentially.

But then there's the thinking that if you go on a long winning streak, maybe you should lose so you'll know what it feels like and you'll be doubly motivated to never let it happen again.

I don't know. Nobody knows.

Sure, the debates continue. Even former UK stars John Wall and Demarcus Cousins got in on it...one saying a loss would help, the other saying the 'Cats are gonna run this thing out.

Who knows? Certainly, no team goes into a game planning to lose. And these Wildcats have shown extraordinary resiliency in the face of that potential outcome, rallying in the final seconds to beat teams like Ole Miss and LSU.

CAN Kentucky finish the season undefeated? Absolutely.

WILL they? Maybe, maybe not.

SHOULD they? Who in the world knows?