John Calipari

Against Marshall last week, Alex Poythress had nine points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes. Nerlens Noel had 12 points and 11 rebounds for his first UK double-double and was widely praised. Even though Poythress had only three less points and two less rebounds, he was not praised for his play. "Look, Alex Poythress did some good things and then he reverted at times. (He) just grabbed a guy on a foul, wanted to stop playing, left his feet three times because he was late getting to the guy. Instead of being ready and in and then you can close with your hands up, or you can stand straight up and down, be late going to the shooter so you got to leave your feet, which he did three or four times," Calipari said.

LEXINGTON - Anthony Davis is going to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft later this month, but Kentucky coach John Calipari thinks he could also be part of the Olympic team going to London later this summer. Davis led UK¿to the national title and was named the most outstanding player in the Final Four. He swept most national player of the year, freshmen of the year and defensive player of the year honors and was added to the tryout list for the United States Olympic team that will be named in early July.

LEXINGTON - With Kentucky clinging to a narrow lead Tuesday, senior Julius Mays hit perhaps his two biggest 3-point shots of the season in the final 5 minutes, 4 seconds. Mays' first trey put UK¿ahead 61-56 and his second one less than a minute later made it 64-58 and helped UK go on to beat Tennessee 75-65. “The thing is, I get mad when he's catching the ball at the 3-point line and the guy is in the lane and he doesn't shoot it,” said Kentucky coach John Calipari. “Literally the guy has a foot in the lane running at it, but he's in the lane.

LEXINGTON - From what Kentucky coach John Calipari has seen, Auburn coach Tony Barbee has his Tigers playing harder than UK¿has been. That's why Calipari knows Saturday night's game against Barbee, who played and coached under him at Massachusetts, will be a difficult matchup for the Wildcats. “I love this team. We have so much upside. We are going to be in dogfights,” Calipari said after Tuesday's win over Tennessee. “We have to go to Auburn, Auburn is playing as well as anybody in our league right now, on the road, they are retiring numbers, it's Jersey Day, Cup Day and Bat Day in Auburn.

Even when Kentucky had a seemingly comfortable lead against South Carolina Saturday in Rupp Arena, UK coach John Calipari chose to keep reserves Eloy Vargas, Stacey Poole and Jon Hood sitting on the bench until late in the game. On the SEC teleconference Monday, Calipari was asked why he didn’t use the game as a chance to give his bench experience rather than staying with his normal six-player playing rotation. “We have to get better as a team. If we’re going to play six or seven, then they have to get better and that is the first thing on my mind,” Calipari said.

When Kentucky landed Nerlens Noel to give it a dominating inside presence in its 2012 recruiting class to go with three November signees, it gave coach John Calipari another terrific recruiting class. However, Calipari needs and wants more players after having five starters declare they were leaving early for the NBA draft and losing sixth man Darius Miller to graduation. One big-time target for months has been Canadian forward Anthony Bennett, the highest ranked player who has yet to pick a school.

LEXINGTON - Even though he says he's still “trying to figure some stuff out” before settling on a starting lineup and “tinkering with different combinations,” Kentucky coach John Calipari says one thing has not changed about his team since last week's Blue-White Game. “We've just got a long way to go. Defensively, we're just awful right now. We don't stay in front of anybody, we got guys stopping left and right and think it's OK, or 'It wasn't my man and stuff like that,'” Calipari said Wednesday.

LEXINGTON - Some Kentucky basketball fans have been in panic-mode since Saturday when UK lost a second straight game, something that has happened just one other time in coach John Calipari's four seasons here. The panic intensified when UK dropped out of the Associated Press national rankings this week after losing at Notre Dame Thursday and at home to Baylor Saturday. But Calipari is not alarmed by the fans' response. “I don't think it's all of our fans. You have a few. Our fans cheered this team coming off (Saturday)

LEXINGTON - Will there ever be another undefeated team in college basketball? Kentucky went 38-2 and won the national title last year, but suffered a loss in December at Indiana. This year there are no major undefeated teams left in mid-January. Kentucky coach John Calipari said it will be "a very difficult thing" for any team to complete a perfect season. “One, you have to have a talented team. Two, you have to have some veterans on that team. And three, they have to be a mentally tough team that's really in tune with each other.

LEXINGTON - Kentucky coach John Calipari didn't expect to win his first 54 games at Rupp Arena. If you ask him, the Wildcats were lucky to own such a streak after winning a pair of close encounters more than three years ago during his first season in Lexington. “We should have lost seven games,” the Kentucky coach said following his team's 64-55 setback to unranked Baylor, ending the team's 55-game home winning streak, one that his predecessor Billy Gillispie began when Kentucky defeated UNLV in the NIT at Memorial Coliseum in 2009.