Now he has been.
Don't make Kentucky the national champion, or even a Final Four participant, quite yet. But the 29-2 run the Cats made in the first half showed what this team can do when it is playing well and freshman point guard John Wall is healthy.
If Wall is not the nation's most dominant player, he's got to be close. He was too fast, too explosive and too dominant for the Tar Heels in the first half when he had 13 points and five assists to help UK open a 19-point lead.
But early in the second half, he went out with leg cramps. Even though he returned, he was never the same and North Carolina slowly cut into the 43-28 halftime deficit.
Yet this may turn out to be just what Kentucky needed. The Cats got a big win over their closest rival in the chase to be the nation's first team with 2,000 wins and had to do it with Wall far from his best.
"You guys are going to say that I am crazy, but I am happy how this played out," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "We had to play without John against a good team and we had to just figure it out.
"When another team makes a run at us, let's see what we do. You have to understand how to play to finish it off. When you let the other team come at you then the 50-50 balls become very important. There was a couple down the stretch that we didn't get and that could have cost us the game."
It could have, but it didn't.
That's why Patterson says this game will eventually be much more valuable to Cal's Cats than many realize.
"In the second half, I knew I had to get points and rebounds with John out. North Carolina was able to get back in the game, but I made it clear I wanted the ball because the young guys needed to see that," Patterson said.
"It was a little frustrating that they got close, but we wanted to keep our intensity up and we didn't always do a good job of that with the lead. We'll learn from that."
Patterson has had to learn how to control his emotions. He knew before the game that as many as 16 NBA teams would have scouts/general managers at the game and that it would be a chance for him to showcase the perimeter skills he worked on all summer.
Yet rather than force plays, Patterson stayed within the system. Calipari even had to yell at him a few times to be shoot more.
He was 8-for-12 from the field and had his usual solid stat line with one steal and only two turnovers in 37 minutes against Carolina's fast pace and relentless inside pressure.
"Coach said there would be a bunch of NBA guys here and people were telling me that," Patterson said. "It was in my mind, but I couldn't let that dictate how I play. I wanted to win more than I wanted to show anything I could do."
He also wanted to help silence critics who are not believers of UK's ability despite an 8-0 record and No. 5 national ranking.
"I hope this does change the perception of Kentucky basketball," Patterson said. "A lot of analysts are saying we are young and can't do this or that. I hope they found out we are force to be reckoned with."
Kentucky is, but Calipari knows there's a little more fine tuning to do before NCAA Tournament play despite Saturday's win.
"No, we are not back. We are not very good. We had 21 turnovers. There were times late in the game where you had to say, 'Why did he do that?'" Calipari said.
"We held a good shooting team to 38 percent and holding people around 36 percent is where we need to be. There were times we looked really, really good defensively."
However, the coach did admit his team has one trait he really likes.
"For us to be this young and not be very good or know what we are doing, we have guys that are trying to have a will to win. Our execution stinks. I told them that if we get better at executing and taking care of the ball, I like our will to win. We have a will to win and that they will make something happen," Calipari said.
