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While lamenting the poor defense against Sam Houston State, UK Coach John Calipari noted the improved offense in Thursday’s game.

“We didn’t take any bad shots,” he said.

Calipari said he did talk to point guards John Wall and Eric Bledsoe about their 12 turnovers. “Nine of them there was no need,” the UK coach said. “They were trying to make a hard play rather than an easy play.”

But otherwise, Calipari expressed satisfaction with the improved post-up game.

Other than reducing turnovers, he’d also like more conservative play at crunch time. “What we don’t know is when we’re up 20,” he said. “Shoot it quick? Why shoot it quick?”

Watching tape of Kentucky’s victory over Sam Houston State confirmed John Calipari’s post-game comments about poor defense. The Bearkats made  18 three-point baskets, a record for a UK opponent in Rupp Arena.

In the last two games, Kentucky has given up 33 three-point baskets.

“No sense of urgency defensively,” Calipari said the game tape revealed. “We didni’t talk defensively. Absolutely no communication on the court. We stopped playing as much as any team I’ve ever coached. The transition defense may be (even) worse.”

Good transition defense begins with taking good shots and not turning over the ball, the UK coach said. The Cats had 23 turnovers against Sam Houston State.

In the half-court set, Calipari said he wanted the Cats to challenge three-point shooters and make them put the ball on the floor. But UK did not necessarily want to invite drives to the basket, which could cause foul trouble for the big men.

Rider, 2-1, presents a three-point threat. In winning at Mississippi State on Nov. 13, Rider made 10 of 16 three-point shots. In a victory over Lehigh, Rider set a school record with 16 three-point baskets.

As Kentucky works to make improvement, Calipari advised fans how to watch the games. “Do what I do,” he said. “Hold onto your seat and hold your eyes shut.”

Although Kentucky clearly needs better defense after giving up 33 three-point baskets in the last two games, Coach John Calipari did not plan a tough practice for Friday.

He’s more concerned about his team being rested and ready to play Rider on Saturday afternoon, which will be UK’s second game within 36 hours.

Calipari said UK would watch tape and work some on transition defense in Friday’s practice.

After noting that he basically played only five players against Sam Houston State on Thursday, Calipari said, “My concern is just to be fresh for the game (against Rider).”

Such concerns will vanish come semester break. Calipari talked about three-a-day workouts  in that period. UK will be much better team in January, he said.

An injury kept freshman Jon Hood on the bench for Kentucky’s first two games,  UK Coach John Calipari said on Wednesday.

Hood missed about three days of practice, Calipari said. He did not say what the injury was.

Hood

Kentucky Coach John Calipari said on Wednesday that his team could use drill work to improve fundamentals and scrimmage play to improve their sense of rhythm.

Given that choice, Calipari said he would emphasis scrimmaging.

“We need a better rhythm,” he said. “Our rhythm stinks.”

Calipari described the Cats’ sense of pace as “We race up, that means shoot it fast.”

Wrong, the UK coach said.

With his freshman-oriented team, Calipari said he figures he will spend an hour a day showing the players video tape of how the game should be played. He said he spent about 10 minutes per day in such activity with his older, more experienced Memphis teams.

Sports Illustrated magazine’s annual college basketball issues hits newsstands this week.

A news release sent yesterday revealed that Kentucky will be No. 5 in its top 25 ranking.

UK big man Patrick Patterson graces the cover. It’s one of six regional covers.

Besides the team preview (which focuses on freshman point guard John Wall), Sports Illustrated also had a three-page story on the relationship between UK Coach John Calipari and Louisville Coach Rick Pitino.

Free-lance columnist Norman Chad (you may better know him as the commentator on ESPN’s coverage of poker) writes a weekly column. He ends each column by answering reader questions, a feature he calls “Ask The Slouch.” Especially funny questions earn the reader $1.25 from Chad.

This week’s column, which appears on The Washington Post website, had what Chad called a “special Kentucky-Louisville  Edition” of this Ask The Slouch feature.

Here it is (and remember, Chad specializes in an irreverent view of sports):

Q: If John Calipari takes Kentucky to the Final Four and has the season essentially erased due to NCAA sanctions, it would be the third school at which he will have done that. Is that record more unbreakable than Bobby Knight’s 902 career victories? (John G. Roby; Avon Lake, Ohio)

A: Pay the man, Shirley.

Q: To promote safe-sex practices, will the University of Louisville be issuing tablecloths to all incoming freshmen or just to those on the basketball team? (Steve Gallagher; Milwaukee)

A: Pay this fella, too.

Q: Does John Calipari have a plastic surgeon-on-retainer to reduce the size of his nose every time he speaks? (Michael Woods; Houston)

A: It pays — exactly $1.25 — to be a keen observer of college basketball.

Q: Rick Pitino was pictured in the Louisville media guide with the pope last year. Who is he pictured with this year, former senator John Edwards? (T. Ponton; Hyattsville)

A: Another slam dunk, another buck-and-a-quarter.

Arkansas guard Rotnei Clarke’s 51-point performance Friday night broke several records, including Jodie Meeks’ record for points in Bud Walton Arena. Meeks led Kentucky to a victory at Arkansas last season by scoring an arena record of 45 points.
Clarke set an Arkansas record for points and the school and SEC records for three-point baskets in a game wiht 13.
“He threw us on his back tonight and just had an unbelievable performance,” Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey said after the game. “I haven’t seen a better shooting performance than that. That was really, really remarkable.”
Also noteworthy was the attendance. Only 7,713 attended.
“I had no idea about the records,” Clarke said. “It was just fun being able to get a win.
“To be honest with you, I don’t even care about any records that I broke. It was just being able to come out here and play well as a team and seeing guys’ unselfishness, celebrating with me.”
Clarke’s performance lifted a basketball program that has endured a tumultuous off-season that included five players being suspended to start this season. Foot injuries sidelined a sixth player, forward Michael Sanchez.
Then All-SEC senior forward Michael Washington went to the bench 36 seconds into the game after picking up two fouls.
Clarke made his first seven three-point shots to spark a one-sided victory.
“Phenomenal, that’s unbelievable,” Pelphrey said of Clarke’s game. “But in a way, I’m not surprised, because we see him shoot so much, work so hard, understand the type of human being he is.
“He’s capable of making shots like that if he gets them.”

Kentucky’s opener Friday night sets up as a classic contest between talent and experience. Kentucky has the more highly-rated players even with John Wall, who is projected as the first pick in the 2010 NBA draft, sitting out the game. Morehead State has the know-how of battle-tested veterans.
Morehead State Coach Donnie Tyndall called experience “our one advantage in the game.”
One of his players, Ty Proffitt, noted that Kentucky had “off the charts talent.”
In an early-season game, experience versus talent has the feel of a rock-paper-scissors  game. Multiple scenarios and outcomes seems possible.
Maze Stallworth, one of the perimeter shooters that Morehead State uses to balance highly-regarded Kenneth Faried around the basket, suggested one benefit produced by experience.
“We’re not going to show any fear,” he said. “. . . That’s our thing. We don’t want to show any fear.”
ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas saw a clear preference in the talent-versus-experience question.
“I would rather have experience and good talent than super talent that is inexperienced early in the season,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I think that Kentucky has a good enough mix against Morehead State, even though Kenneth Faried is the real deal. He could be taken in the second round of the NBA Draft.
“If Kentucky didn’t have such truly outstanding guard talents, I would be concerned. But, the talent that Kentucky has should overwhelm Morehead State over the course of 40 minutes.
“The early minutes are really important. Kentucky may not be able to blow past them early, but should be able to ‘methodically blow out’ Morehead over the course of the game.”
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With his era about to officially begin, John Calipari uttered a most un-Kentucky-like thought: Kentucky does not have to win against Morehead State in Friday night’s season opener.
“I don’t want these kids feeling they have to win,” Calipari told reporters on Thursday. “No.
“You’ve got to prepare to win and let it go.”
For a program that once saw the home team booed in what became a 29-point conference victory, Calipari sounded like a revolutionary. Winning not being the top priority — the only priority? — surely was not the kind of change UK fans envisioned when Calipari recruited the No. 1 recruiting class and persuaded All-American candidate Patrick Patterson to return for another season.
Yet, Calipari insisted that beating Morehead State is hardly a must.
“I understand what the expectations are,” he said. “The expectations are not to win in November. They’re not. You could lose the first five (games) and win the national title. They’ll forget about it.”
Or UK fans could harp on a chink in Calipari armor: He can’t win the little ones.
The new Kentucky coach laughed at the suggestion, and stuck to his big-picture view.
“I’m not trying to soft-sell this,” Calipari said. “What I do is tell the truth. . . . This is about us learning.
“What an opportunity in this game. (Morehead State) may rain on our parade. If they want it worse than we do, they may. We’ll see what we’re made of. On Nov. 13.”