Friday, Calipari was back on SportsCenter with Buccigross. This time, it was a very cordial interview on UK basketball.

“Nice, polite conversation between the two of you,” said the other anchor after the interview concluded. “Proud of you.”

Calipari went through a few of his customary points: His team is “spotty” right now but will be good in March. His team is young, which explains their sluggish starts in the first two games. He knows Kyle Wiltjer needs more, so stopping telling him that same thing. Recruits love coming here because of how successful his players become without sacrificing anything in the classroom. His players have to play together if they want to reach their goals. And did you know he has more than a million Twitter followers and hundreds of thousands of “dear friends” on Facebook?

Still, Calipari said what he wanted to say. And didn’t call Buccigross any names.

In fact, it was Buccigross who took his turn.

“What Mick Jagger was to the Rolling Stones,” Buccigross said, “John Calipari is to Kentucky.”

Calipari continues his ESPN Car Wash experience:

1:55 p.m. – Dan LeBatard is Highly Questionable

2:10 p.m. – ESPN.com Page 2

2:30 p.m. – Scott Van Pelt Radio Show (live)

2:45 p.m. – Mike Lupica Show on ESPN 1050 Radio (live)

2:55 p.m. – ITK/Front Row

Anthony Davis is also set to visit with ESPN The Magazine at 2:15 p.m.

Photo by Latara Appleby | Staff

1. Terrence Jones vs. Thomas Robinson – Both Sports Illustrated cover boys, this will be the premier matchup on the court. Robinson is listed a

t 6-foot-10, 237 pounds and was the Jayhawks’ sixth man last season, averaging 7.6 points and 6.4 rebounds in 14.6 minutes per game. This year, he’s the leader. In Kansas’ first game of the season, a 100-54 win over Towson, Robinson scored 18 points (on 16 shots, double the amount any other player took) and grabbed 11 rebounds. This will be a big-time chance for Jones to show Calipari is right when he called Jones one of the best three players in the nation.

“He really does a great job of creating space for himself in transition,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “He’ll throw himself in pick-and-rolls and create space for himself to get the ball back. Now he’s playing out on the floor some, so he’ll bring it up the court on rebounds, shoot the 15-footer. He’s really good. It’s going to be a hard matchup for us. With Terrence, how much do you really want to put him on Robinson? And he’s probably too physical for a bunch of our guys.”

2. UK gets first test at validating ranking — And it’s a big one, as No. 2 UK gets No. 13 Kansas. UK is obviously talented; even if they lose this game, that fact won’t change. But they do get a shot to prove they have something special at an early stage of the season. Doron Lamb said it should be a “statement game,” and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist said, “We just want to show everyone that we are the No. 2 team in the country. Or even No. 1.” Calipari continues to say, depending on what day you happen to listen to him, anywhere from 40-100 teams could beat UK. We’ll see if the 13th-ranked team in the nation is included in those 40-100 teams.

Of course, the same applies to a Kansas team that many think may be rated too high considering it lost a lot of players. “It may be a statement game, but I’m hoping it’s the one they think it’ll be,” Calipari said. “It could be another statement. I think Kansas, in the same sense, is going to make it a statement game.”

3. How UK reacts to knowing all eyes are on them — Calipari has talked before about how he thought his freshmen — in particular Kyle Wiltjer and Marquis Teague — have been affected by the awareness of a sold-out arena and being on TV. If that’s true for a game against Marist that was televised on FS South, a national game on ESPN in Madison Square Garden will give a much more thorough test to see how natural the freshmen are at handling the spotlight. If they do well, it projects well for later games, such as North Carolina and, looking even further and to even more important games, postseason play. Calipari, though, wants to temper how much this game matters in terms of his team’s readiness.

“Let’s just be the best we can be for Nov.14,” Calipari said. “If that’s not good enough, we’ll come back and regroup and keep going.”

Prediction: UK wins by three

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Terrence Jones didn't have the best game, but displayed maturity in the post-game. Photo by Latara Appleby | Staff

He sat in a blue chair about 16 hours after he was a passenger in a highly publicized incident, the swarm of media around him, waiting for the questions to come.

The first: How was your day?

“It was all right,” Jones said, and he couldn’t resist a smile after that one. Not because he was intentionally coy or joking, just that he knew all of what had transpired could not be simply summed up with “all right.”

He ended up expanding on that answer — a lot. He held court for about 10 minutes, giving his side of the story on the accident, denying reports that said he had been drinking, explaining why he fled the scene when a close high school friend and a college teammate stayed behind. He answered them all.

Not to overdramatize what he did. The incident was not that serious, from a broad perspective. He wasn’t at fault, and by his and head coach John Calipari’s accounts, didn’t do anything wrong besides going out late to support a friend the night before a game.

Which, on the flip side, shouldn’t be overlooked. He said he was going to listen to a friend perform at a song at a venue. That’s nice of him. It’s also irresponsible to do that after midnight on the night before the first game of a season when you’re supposed to be a new man and a matured leader. True, it’s understandable, since he is a college kid, but he’s also a college basketball star at Kentucky, where players are “held to a higher standard,” as Calipari wrote.

But he still had to answer for his actions. UK’s Media Relation department had predetermined that he would need to do so, but Jones seemed more than willing to take full accountability for his night, both to us and to his team.

“He apologized to us. You could tell he was really sincere,” Darius Miller said. “He did a great job of taking responsibility for his actions. We’re not really worried about it, we’re just moving on.”

Unless, of course, it’s after 11 p.m. on weekdays or midnight on weekends, which is the newly instituted curfew imposed by Calipari.

As for UK, it’s hoping to move on with better play from the veterans.

For the first time ever, UK started three freshmen in a season-opener. They needed them. Jones, coming off the bench, only scored eight points. Darius Miller matched that, but had zero in the first half.

“I just think I have to do a better job of being ready every single game, being more consistent and respecting our opponent,” Miller said. “I think I got caught up in last game and how easily we won (an 85-point win over Morehouse). I really can’t be doing that.”

It would help if he didn’t. Calipari knows the value of having steady production from veterans. Last season, it’s all he talked about down the stretch, when games were increasing in importance and the veterans’ play was stagnant.

Against Marist, he criticized Miller and Lamb (and would have criticized Jones had he not been fresh off the accident, which changes the equation for a player when he knows all anyone is talking about is him).

“Defensively, Doron and Darius are not where they need to be with the rest of these guys,” Calipari said. “I don’t know if they were uptight because it’s the real season now and the stuff is on and we’re this highly ranked team.”

I hope that’s not the case, because that’s the opposite of how it should logically work. Relying on freshmen and hoping for veterans to pull through is what UK doesn’t want.

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Freshman forward Anthony Davis in the game against Marist College, at Rupp Arena, in Lexington, Ky., on Friday, Nov. 11, 2011. Photo by Latara Appleby | Staff ..

The point margin was not quite 85 points, but UK charted its first regular season victory against Marist 108-58 Friday night at Rupp Arena.

The Cats got off to a quick start, scoring early in the first half and causing Marist to call its first time out after three minutes of play.

Their run didn’t last long, though. Marist caught up after making a few big threes to lead 18-17 with 13:30 left on the clock, which was Marist’s largest lead of the game.

Marist was able to beat the Cats on the dribble numerous times throughout the first half, but freshman forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist kept finding ways to change the game. Kidd-Gilchrist led the Cats with 11 total points in the first half, as well as accounting for five rebounds two blocks and two steals. He ended the game with 15 points, seven rebound, two blocks and two steals.

“Without Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis, we are down at halftime,” Calipari said. “Those two were so good in the first half. That’s the only reason we were up.”

Five of UK’s players earned double-digit points. Freshman forward Anthony Davis, who was named Player of the Game, accounted for 23 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 10-13 from the floor.

Sophomore guard Doron Lamb tallied 15 points while freshman guard Marquis Teague had 15 and freshman forward Kyle Wiltjer accounted for 14.

Jones didn’t score his first points until there were about two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first half, with a three from the left side, then came back to grab an offensive rebound and dunked, allowing UK to pull away 45-36. He walked away from the season opener with eight points and nine rebounds, and was named Sub of the Game.

Following the car accident around 2:30 a.m. Friday, sophomore forward Terrence Jones was not a starter for UK’s season opener. Because of Jones being out so late, head coach John Calipari now requires a curfew for the team.

“He apologized to us,” senior guard Darius Miller said. “You could tell he was sincere and we’re not really worried about it.

Defensively, fans saw some of the press head coach John Calipari has been talking about, but the offensive play was lacking. Due to the fast pace of the game, UK and Marist traded turnovers in the first half. Marist ended the game with 14 turnovers and UK ended with nine.

In the second half, UK started to build intensity on the offensive side of the court, making the Cats Largest lead at 30 at the 12:06 mark.

It was all UK from there. The Cats continued to perform consistently for the remainder of the half.

“The first half, we started off just not playing as well as we could,” Jones said. (In the second half) “We were stunting, helping each other, talking more, playing defense (doing things) we do in practice.”

The Cats face No. 13 Kansas Tuesday at Madison Square Garden at 9 p.m.

Photo by Latara Appleby | Staff

Terrence Jones speaks about his early Friday morning car accident:

• “Well honestly, I take full responsibility for being out late. That really let down my team by making us have curfew.”
• Jones denied the reports that he had been drinking. “When it comes to me drinking and all that other stuff, none of that’s true. If they got cameras or pictures, or whoever says they saw it, really, if they got it, then I want to see it. Because I know for a fact I wouldn’t do that.”
• Asked about the curfew, Jones said, “I’m scared to say now people will know. It’s 11 (p.m.) on weekdays and 12 (midnight) on weekends.”
• Jones denied he left the scene because he feared an altercation with the other driver, as head coach John Calipari wrote on his website: “I didn’t even see the other driver, I was in too much pain. I was scared Coach Cal would find out and we would have curfew. That was it. I didn’t see the other driver, try to fight him. I don’t even know what he looks like now. I called one of my assistant coaches and told him what happened. I told him, please don’t tell Coach Cal, I’m going home right now.”
• Jones said he called Kenny Payne and Chris Woolard, both members of the UK staff: “They both knew where I was and where I was going. I wasn’t hiding from any police. I went straight home. They knew where I was. That’s how the police knew where I was.”
• Jones on why he was out at 2:30 a.m. “I take blame for being out that late, but — it was just something that happened to cause all that. I felt I was there (reportedly at a club) for just a little bit of time to support one of my friends who was doing a little song. I didn’t stay after that. I didn’t party, I wasn’t dancing. None of that. I was just on the side just trying to listen him and then leave. It was something I was doing just to be nice.”
• Jones said he was in the passenger seat, which was where the other car hit: “It hit my door. If you have seen the picture, I was sitting in the front seat. So I felt pain. I was just trying to make sure everybody was okay. And then I was just trying (to not) get the rest of the team in trouble or make us look bad as a team from something I didn’t have control over, really.”
• Jones said the pain was on “the whole right side of my body,” and the pain lingered throughout the game, in which he scored eight points and grabbed nine rebounds. “I knew I was going to fight through the pain and give it my all. With everything that happened, I knew a lot of attention was going to be on me. I didn’t want it to seem I was trying to score a lot of points or anything but helping my team play like we should.”
• On whether other players can learn from his experience: “I feel it could be a lesson learned for every college basketball palyer. I didn’t need to be out. I had just gotten done working out at about 12:30 (a.m.) and just decided to go somewhere for a little bit. And it turned into something I didn’t expect it to.”
• On how he reacted to reports that he had been drinking: “I knew none of my coaches would think it was true. Because I was talking to them right after the accident.”
• On his initial thoughts: “I was more worried about me being the leader, letting my team down when it comes to me being the reason we have curfew. One of the older guys shouldn’t be making mistakes like that.”
• Jones was held out of the starting lineup but ended up playing 24 minutes. “I didn’t feel I deserved to start (tonight) with it being my fault. Making our whole team look bad just in a situation like this.”
• On how the accident happened: “The guy was going like 40 (miles per hour) in our lane. So he (the driver of Jones’ car) had to just go over to the left so we wouldn’t go head-to-head.”
• On the impact of the accident: “It was my first time even in a car accident. So I was real shocked and didn’t really know what to do. I listened to everyone around me, called everyone I trusted. I asked them what I should do. I didn’t want to get into anything more than it was already.”
• On how the accident affected his play: “My whole right side was hurting. When it got hit, my whole knee hit the dashboard real hard and it was bruised and bleeding. It was something I had to fight through, for real.”
• John Calipari had this to say: “He understands, and the team understands, we have a curfew now. At the beginning of every year I give them an opportunity to, you know, figure it out, police each other, do your thing, and they know the night before a game — come on. But he knows. He feels bad about what he did, so we’ll deal with it.”
• Darius Miller: “He apologized to us, you could tell he was really sincere. He did a great job of taking responsibility for his actions. We’re not really worried about it, we’re just moving on.”

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Links to all our stories:

Next in Line: Teague follows in Calipari point guard lineage.

6 starters, 5 spots. Who’s it going to be?

Veteran players will be driving force.

Don’t overlook UK’s defense.

Nonconference schedule preview.

Q.  What did you think?

COACH CALIPARI:  We were better.  That’s what I was looking for.  I was looking for more intensity, a team that was a little more athletic and a little bigger.  I wanted to see how we came out of the gate.  I thought we came out of the gate really strong.

If I’m not mistaken in the first half, I think my starters were 24‑for-24.  I’ve never heard of that.  I also want to tell you we had 31 assists, which I was happy about.

Again, the game got crazy.  Played those last six minutes and we only had 13 turnovers.  So we’re ahead in some cases, but we’re behind in others.  But you saw the toughness was better, the defense was better.  All the things we worked on.

I hate to say this.  We look like we may be a pretty good zone team when I go big on this team.  With Anthony (Davis) is on that one wing, you’re not getting a shot off.  Forget it.  Play the other wing.  Means you got to play half the court.

I like Terrence (Jones) at three.  So now you’re 6’10″, 6’10″, 6’9″ on your frontline.  Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with a 7’3″ wingspan as your two.  Doron Lamb as a two.  I don’t know how they passed it around when we went to that zone.

Q.  Why do you hate the idea of being a good zone team?

COACH CALIPARI:  Well, you can’t be good at everything.  You’re either going to be a really good man team or a really good zone team.  The teams that were really good at zone and still are, Syracuse, that’s what they play.  That’s their defense.  They work every day.  They don’t spend time on man‑to‑man.  Temple back in the day.  Arizona State, Herb Sendek is playing zone.  If they have to go man‑to‑man or press or anything else, they’re not as good.

I don’t believe you can be good at everything.  But as a change‑up defense, this could be something we look to.  I doubt it.  But we might.

Q.  You talked after that last game about why Kidd‑Gilchrist would start.

COACH CALIPARI:  It wasn’t only me.  Everybody that watched the game and saw it said, ‘This kids needs to be starting.  It’s crazy.  Leave him in the game.’

Q.  I assume he gave you what you wanted.

COACH CALIPARI:  Did you see him run the court?  Do you know now why I tell my team, ‘If he’s ahead of you and you don’t give him the ball, you’re coming out.’  He makes plays in transition.  He’ll pass it.  He’s a willing passer.  He wants us to win so he’ll make that extra thing.  He’s good.

Terrence (Jones) played today.  Terrence now, you know, you look at him and you see an athlete now, a guy that can fly up and down the court and put his head on the rim.  Well, I didn’t see that last game.

Then the other guy that played today was Anthony (Davis). He played with some aggressiveness.  He still had some balls knocked from him and didn’t come up with a few rebounds.  But did you like our zone offense with him in there?  Just throw it at the rim, make them play the basket, which means the middle’s open, the wings are open.

Q.  Probably a lot of people assumed if Michael Kidd‑Gilchrist was starting, that would mean Darius Miller wasn’t.

COACH CALIPARI:  We really got six starters and maybe seven when Kyle (Wiltjer) is playing really good.  Because those other two are older, I would say we have six starters.  Any NBA team that’s come in, and just about every one has, says the same thing:  ‘You have six starters.  One of them has to come off the bench.’  Whether it’s going to be Darius (Miller) or Doron (Lamb), I don’t know right now.  It was either going to be Michael (Kidd-Gilchrist), Darius or Doron [to come off the bench].  After this, you understand it’s not going to be Michael, he’s going to be starting.  Now, who is that other starter?

It’s good.  You have two other guys that have to fight.  The thing that will take their games to another level, Darius and Doron, is that competitive spirit.  That battle for a spot I think takes them to another level.  And it really doesn’t matter who’s in the end.  One of them was the MVP of the SEC tournament and the other was the best player for us in the Final Four, Doron.  They’re both really good.

I may do what I did a year ago, game to game, where it was DeAndre (Liggins) or Doron, depending on whether I needed a defender or a scorer.

It’s a good problem to have.  Let me put it that way.

Q.  How do you judge what you saw tonight and transfer it to when competition gets better and better as you move forward?

COACH CALIPARI:  I’m going to watch the tape.  I told them I’m not even looking at the score.  I want to see them staying in the stance. I want to see them physical, going after rebounds. I want to see the rebound percentages offensively and defensively making sure we were attacking.  I thought we made easy plays, which is what is hard to do in a game like this.

Again, look, Morehouse, we played really well, and that’s why the score was what it was.  Morehouse lost to Georgia by 24.  They came in, I’m telling you, they were excited.  They were screaming in this hallway.  They were jacked up on the court.  We hit them in the mouth to start the game.

But they’re a good team.  They’re not a bad team.  It’s just that we were really good tonight.

Now, will we be playing better teams?  Obviously.  We got the No. 1 ranked team in the country.  We’ve got a team that’s been a top‑five team the last couple years.  We have other teams on our schedule who are really good.  Talented players.  We’re going to have to sustain effort and do all those things.

I will watch the tape and take what I can from it. (I’m) then probably going to watch some highlight tape tomorrow to show them when they were terrific defensively, all those things, how we ran wide.  The last game we ran right up the middle of the court; didn’t get anything.

So there were some good things.  But there will be some things that I don’t like, but…

Q.  What did you think about (Kyle) Wiltjer’s play with 26 points?

COACH CALIPARI:  I was happy.  The only thing I told him at halftime is, OK, you’re starting to define your game.  So your game is if you’re open for 3s, take them.  If they’re tight, you want a one‑dribble pull‑up, take them.  If not, hit the wing, go in the post and shoot a hook.  Make it real simple.  Don’t invent stuff.  Shoot the 3, shoot the one‑dribble pull‑up, throw it to the wing, go in the post, shoot the runner.

Did you see the hook he shot?  Shoot hooks.  I mean, he tried to throw that one pass to show us.  He didn’t need to.  The other thing is he’s got to get tougher.  He can do that in practice.  We spent the last few days after Transy, all toughness.  That’s all we worked on.  Tough rebounds, blocking each other, diving on the floor, taking charges, gang rebounding together, ‘the gauntlet,’ which we prepare for a team we play that fouls on every possession.  We just put them through a gauntlet where you get fouled on the baseline, you get fouled on the wing, you drive to pass it, you get fouled again.  We call it the gauntlet.

Q.  Coach, talking about going off of practice, with Mike Kidd-Gilchrist going out there, he really seems to bring an edge that Teague and Davis feed off of.  It’s almost nastiness.

COACH CALIPARI:  It’s not nasty.  He plays that hard.  When you watch him, it forces you as a player to raise your level of intensity because if you don’t you stand out like, ‘Why isn’t he playing?  Why is he playing cool?  He acts like it doesn’t matter.’  And the other dude is diving on the floor, talking, jumping, stabbing, blocking, sprinting, driving.  It makes you either mad or you say, ‘I got to step this up, I got to step on the gas.’

I think what’s happened is Marquis Teague plays that way, too, now.  It’s nice to have two out there that way.

Q.  Could you talk about Teague, the way he ran the team.  Went a long time before he took a shot.

COACH CALIPARI:  He goes 5-6, seven assists, two (turnovers).  Again, we’re flying up and down the court.  So we’re not walking, throwing 12 passes, making a slice cut, back screen.  We’re flying, driving and moving.  He has a lot of decisions to make when he has the ball.  He has the ball 75 percent of the time.  The last two games, 16 assists, four (turnovers).  He’s going to turn it over some and have less assists. He’s going to screw up some.  But he’s playing well.

Again, he gets 12 points on 5-6 shooting.  Stops defensively when he’s not on the ball.  Does that a lot.  But he’s playing well.

Q.  How encouraging is it or how important is the team chemistry this early?  When (Jarrod) Polson was in, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was going crazy.

COACH CALIPARI:  Well, first of all, Jarrod Polson can play because he doesn’t hurt you.  He doesn’t go in the game like, ‘Watch this, then does something crazy.’  He just goes in and runs the team, plays the shooting guard.  What position do you want me to play?  I’m not going to play the hardest play.  Played for Kyle Wiltjer.  He missed another wide‑open shot.  Defensively he does it.  He’s longer than you think.  He’s 6’3″ and he dunks.  So he doesn’t hurt you.

It’s nice when we put in Sam (Malone) and Brian (Long), who we don’t use that much in practice.  They’re in that game and they’re playing pretty well, which is kind of neat, and the team cheering those guys on, too.

Q.  In a game like this when you’re turning them over on defense, your kids are playing hard, they’re scoring out of their defense, how much does that help you with your message that we got to get it done on defense first?

COACH CALIPARI:  Yeah, I think they know.  They understand.  They’ve got guys on this team, three of them, really four of them, that were in the Final Four and know that you got to have a certain toughness. You have to have a grittiness to you, you got to defend and rebound.

What this team has, the added thing, is we can block shots.  Last year we blocked shots, which is amazing.  Terrence, Darius and Josh (Harrellson) blocked shots last year, but now they’re coming at you different ways.

We have the let’s be tough defensively, let’s scramble it up a little bit.  I can remember the one time, the kid driving down, he saw Anthony just dribbled right out through to a guy 25 feet.  You just say, ‘Come on, go in there.’  That kid’s long.  I don’t know how many blocks he had today.

Thanks.

• UK head coach John Calipari said Michael Kidd-Gilchrist will be in the starting lineup in UK’s exhibition game against Morehouse Monday. “There’s no question for anybody in the nine states who watched it” that Kidd-Gilchrist should start, Calipari said. Kidd-Gilchrist came off the bench in UK’s first exhibition but scored 19 points, and Calipari said after the game Kidd-Gilchrist had locked up a starting spot.
• As for who else will start: “What I may do is start one group to start the game and another group to start the second half, and then you can judge,” Calipari said.
• Stacey Poole, who is mulling a potential transfer and whose father said a decision would be reached by Monday, is still on the roster as of 5 p.m. when the media talked to Calipari. “My whole thing with all these kids is, you want them to be able to reach their dreams here. They have to believe they can do that. We’re going to let him make his decision,” Calipari said. “I’m for the kids. If he needs some time to make a decision about being in this program, I’m fine with that. Big-time decision. I love the kid. It’s been hard. He wants to play. I don’t blame him. Great kid, too.”
• However, it doesn’t sound like Poole is expected to play against Morehouse. “We’re going to play eight guys, and the ninth man is Jarrod (Polson),” Calipari said. “That’s who we will play.”
• Anthony Davis is still adjusting to playing in the post. Calipari said they have been on him the last few practices about bending his legs when jostling for position. Right now, Davis has a habit of standing straight up and down. But, Calipari said UK won’t try to force Davis into the post when that’s not what he’s best suited to do. “There will be players who he should be able to post up and score on,” Calipari said. “But they better be real skinny.”
• Davis said he played mostly guard in high school and has been working on more post moves. “I feel comfortable, I just want to learn more post moves.”
• Calipari said Kyle Wiltjer is much better than how he played against Transylvania, when he scored seven points on 2-for-4 shooting in 18 minutes. Calipari said he thought Wiltjer had some anxiety from playing in front of the Rupp Arena crowd and knowing the game was on television. “He got in and I don’t think he played as well as he’s been playing. Broke off a lot of plays, which is normal. He was thinking instead of playing. But I think he’ll be fine. Just have to give him time.”
• Calipari said UK still has a lot of things it’s working on, from the full-court press to switching on defense to holding a post position to taking advantage of more fast-break opportunities. “We have a lot of holes,” Calipari said. “The good news with our schedule is you learn right away (how far along we are). It’s Marist, then Kansas, uh-oh, on the road, Tip-off (Tournament), uh-oh, on the road, then all of a sudden you turn around and you’re playing North Caorlina, who we’re not ready to play.”
• Calipari just started using a treadmill for players who lose rebounding drills or make mistakes in practice. The treadmill sits in the corner and goes about 14 miles per hour, and players just have to hop on and start running for 30 seconds if they get sent over there. And, it’s loud. Jarrod Polson said Calipari will sometimes let the whole team watch a player run. Davis said he and Terrence Jones have one-on-one rebounding battles with the loser being sent to the treadmill. Davis said he and Jones have each won a best-of-five rebound challenge.
• Asked about his cryptic post on his website about recruiting, Calipari said that we would have to interpret his message, and that those who knew they were the intended recipients would know, and that he just puts his message out on how he’s feeling about certain things. Basically, he remained cryptic. Here’s part of his response. “Let me say this: When you throw a rock in a pack of dogs, the one you hit yelps like heck. Let the message stand. We don’t talk about anybody. We don’t promise starting positions, minutes, all that stuff. You won’t be the only guy. That’s how we recruit. My message was, this is how we recruit. We’re not desperate. This is what we do.”

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The start of last week’s exhibition was slow, with players trying to adapt to playing with opponents wearing colors other than blue and white.

“Our first exhibition, just playing another team, probably had a little bit of nerves, especially the freshmen,” sophomore guard Jarrod Polson said. But they’re working together on defense and working on executing offensive plays, Polson said.

Often during the game against Transy the Cats were attempting to press, but when switching they lost sight of players, allowing them to find an open man for a three pointer.

“We probably spent 15 minutes on the press before we pressed in that game,” head coach John Calipari said. “Then I saw where we were with it and now I’ve spent time really showing them where they’re supposed to be.”

When the Cats got a handle on the press during the Transy game, that enabled them to force turnovers and steals, but this defensive strategy isn’t the only thing on which they’re focusing.

UK has “just been working on defense, rebounding, those are our two key points,” freshman forward Anthony Davis said. “Especially since we gave up a lot of threes on Transylvania.”

While Davis was having difficulty posting up during the game against Transy, his post game isn’t something that Calipari finds necessary to be successful.

“You post up (sophomore forward) Terrence Jones, you post up (freshman forward) Michael (Kidd)-Gilchrist, you post up (senior guard) Darius (Miller), you post up (freshman forward) Kyle Wiltjer,” Calipari said. “You use the things that (Davis) does well instead of trying to force him, but he’s done fine.”
“We’re still learning and still trying to figure out exactly how we’re going to play.”

Anthony Davis, Terrence Jones, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague were each placed on the watch list, according to CBS’ Jeff Goodman, who obtained an early copy.

UK and North Carolina each had the most players on the list, with four apiece.

The full list, presented in alphabetical order:

Tim Abromaitis, F, Sr., Notre Dame
Harrison Barnes, F, Soph., North Carolina
Will Barton, G, Soph., Memphis
Brad Beal, G, Fr., Florida
William Buford, G, Sr., Ohio State
Aaron Craft, G, Soph., Ohio State
Anthony Davis, F, Fr., Kentucky
Marcus Denmon, G, Sr., Missouri
Andre Drummond, C, Fr., UConn
Festus Ezeli, C, Sr., Vanderbilt
Ashton Gibbs, G, Sr., Pittsburgh
Michael Glover, F, Sr., Iona
Drew Gordon, F, Sr., New Mexico
Draymond Green, F, Sr., Michigan State
JaMychal Green, F, Sr., Alabama
Tim Hardaway Jr., G, Soph., Michigan
Elias Harris, F, Jr., Gonzaga
John Henson, F, Jr., North Carolina
Tu Holloway, G, Sr., Xavier
Robbie Hummel, F, Sr., Purdue
Joe Jackson, G, Soph., Memphis
John Jenkins, G, Soph., Vanderbilt
Orlando Johnson, G, Sr., UC Santa Barbara
Darius Johnson-Odom, G, Sr., Marquette
Perry Jones III, F, Soph., Baylor
Terrence Jones, F, Soph., Kentucky
Kevin Jones, F, Sr., West Virginia
Kris Joseph, F, Sr., Syracuse
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, F, Fr., Kentucky
Jeremy Lamb, G, Soph., UConn
Kendall Marshall, G, Soph., North Carolina
Ray McCallum, G, Soph., Detroit
Doug McDermott, F, Soph., Creighton
Khris Middleton, F, Jr., Texas A&M
Quincy Miller, F, Fr., Baylor
Reeves Nelson, F, Jr., UCLA
Andrew Nicholson, F, Sr., St. Bonaventure
Alex Oriakhi, C, Jr., UConn
Austin Rivers, G, Fr., Duke
Thomas Robinson, F, Jr., Kansas
Terrence Ross, G, Soph., Washington
John Shurna, F, Sr., Northwestern
Peyton Siva, G, Jr., Louisville
Josh Smith, C, Soph., UCLA
Jared Sullinger, C, Soph., Ohio State
Jordan Taylor, G, Sr., Wisconsin
Jeffery Taylor, G/F, Sr., Vanderbilt
Marquis Teague, G, Fr., Kentucky
Patric Young, C, Soph., Florida
Tyler Zeller, F, Sr., North Carolina