Bruce Pearl once beat John Calipari when he had a top-ranked team and three times beat Billy Donovan when he had eventual national champions. So if anybody knows how to topple giants of this sport, it’s the former Tennessee coach turned vice president of marketing for a Knoxville-based wholesaler.

And even he has no idea what to do with these Kentucky Wildcats.

“How good are these guys?” Pearl asked during a halftime chat at Rupp Arena. “I don’t know what Tennessee team I could’ve brought in here and won with.”

Me neither, BP. Me neither.

Short of putting a ballot in front of Donovan and a pen in his hand, I’d interpret that as 1. Kentucky; 2. Syracuse; 3. Ohio State. And I would agree.

The excessively diplomatic Florida players didn’t want to do their own rankings. But it’s clear the Wildcats dominated the Gators to a far greater extent than either the Orange or the Buckeyes.

Florida’s halftime deficit against Ohio State was three. Its halftime deficit against Syracuse was four. Its halftime deficit here was 12 – and the Gators trailed by double digits for the final 18:41.

This was a dominating performance in every aspect, and it started to answer the last remaining questions about the Wildcats. They hadn’t played a ranked opponent since Dec. 31, but a user-friendly January schedule clearly didn’t render them soft.

Now the only question left is whether Kentucky can win like this against good teams on the road. There is a trip to Vanderbilt on Saturday. A game at Mississippi State on Feb. 21. And a return engagement with the Gators in Gainesville on March 4.

If the ‘Cats play there like they played here, good luck to the home teams. They’ll need it.

Kentucky had strolled through more than half its Southeastern Conference schedule without encountering any treacherous circumstance. No opponent entered as a legitimate league title threat. Only a couple, Arkansas and Alabama, have a shot at the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats got to play both at home. Their increasingly spectacular and cohesive play was only part of the reason they were able to stretch a winning streak to 15 games entering Tuesday.

“It’s not really our fault, though,” sophomore guard Doron Lamb said. “It’s our schedule. We’ve just got to play who’s on our schedule. Now we play the top teams in our conference, really, and we’ve got to prove to the world we’re the best team in our conference.”

Tuesday night was supposed to be different: Kentucky’s first significant SEC challenge. Florida is No. 8 in the nation, second in the conference. A couple hours after tip, the Gators were 78-58 victims of a team whose possibilities make it a challenge to stay in this particular moment. It is hard not to ponder March.

The Marquis Teague Project is making progress. John Calipari does this every year. He takes a five-star recruit with all the physical tools to be a great point guard, and melds him into someone who can actually run a team. The first few months with Teague were a real struggle, though, and the Wildcats were sometimes winning despite him. It’s clear he’s not John Wall or Brandon Knight, but on Tuesday, Teague finally looked like a guy who might be able to pilot a title team.

He knocked down a few threes, finishing with 12 points, but most importantly, he took the fewest shots (six) of any of the top six players in UK’s rotation and finished with a season-high 10 assists against five turnovers. That is the ideal version of Teague: A floor general who thinks pass (or lob) first, gets Anthony Davis and Doron Lamb heavily involved in the offense, and scores only like a role player.