Marquis Teague

LEXINGTON - Kentucky has six players that have taken between 103 and 142 shots from the field this season during the team's 13-1 start going into tonight's game in Louisville against Arkansas-Little Rock. While it's no surprise that sophomore guard Doron Lamb, the team's top scorer at 15.4 points per game, leads the team with 142 shots taken, it seems a bit unusual that point guard Marquis Teague is next on the team with 131 shots. That's four more shots than Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and 28 more shots than Anthony Davis.

LEXINGTON - Really there's no reason for anyone to be overly surprised at the progress Kentucky freshman point guard Marquis Teague has made recently. Maybe he's not John Wall or Brandon Knight, Calipari's two previous point guards at UK. Maybe he's not Derrick Rose or Tyreke Evans, Calipari's last two point guards at Memphis. But the current Marquis Teague is still plenty good enough to have his name being mentioned not only as a possible NBA first-round draft pick in June, but also good enough to position the Cats to win a national title.

Terrence Jones has a simple explanation that he learned through his own experiences to tell freshman point guard Marquis Teague when he senses he might be overwhelmed by what he hears from Kentucky coach John Calipari. “I feel he is equally tough on everyone. Coach treats everyone the same. He has got on me a lot of times, too. It is just how he coaches and you can't take it personal, especially if you are the point guard running the team,” said Jones. “I tell him just try and get his mind on the game and not really listen to how he is saying it but listen to what he is saying because Coach knows what he's talking about.

If Brandon Knight decides to return to Kentucky for his sophomore season it would be fine with incoming freshman point guard Marquis Teague. Rather than viewing Knight as competition for playing time, the Indianapolis guard thinks playing with Knight could benefit him. “We could play together. Me and coach Cal (John Calipari) have already talked about that,” Teague said after practice Thursday for Saturday’s Jordan Brand Classic in Charlotte, N.C. “Playing with him would actually make it easier on me. Teams would be so worried about him and putting pressure on him because he can score so easily that it would make it a lot easier on me. They can’t double team both of us.” Calipari says it would be “scary” to have them both on the same team.

LEXINGTON - Kentucky has won its last two games by a combined 49 points and played as well as it has in any back-to-back games this season. Coach John Calipari says the key has been point guard Marquis Teague. He's scored 15 points in the wins over LSU and Tennessee, but had eight assists and just three turnovers. “The guy that has the ball, if he's playing well, you've got a chance. If he's not playing well, you have no chance. Now, he can play well and you still lose because everybody else is playing bad. But they can all play well and if he's playing poorly, you can't win,” said Calipari after the 69-44 win over Tennessee Tuesday.

LEXINGTON - In a game that was played at a faster pace than most teams were willing to go against Kentucky, freshman point guard Marquis Teague somehow managed to slow down and play perhaps his best game for the No. 2 Wildcats. Teague only had seven points in Tuesday's 86-63 victory over Arkansas, but that's what was best about his game. He didn't think about scoring like previous UK¿point guards John Wall and Brandon Knight had to do for coach John Calipari. Instead, Teague was content to distribute the ball, run the offense and continue to play defense.

LEXINGTON - He went from what Kentucky coach John Calipari deemed “shaky” early in the season to perhaps UK's key player in Final Four wins over Louisville and Kansas and that's why Marquis Teague is headed for the NBA rather than returning for a sophomore season with the Cats. He's expected to be the fifth straight point guard - Tyreke Evans, Derrick Rose, John Wall and Brandon Knight were the others - to become a first-round pick. Teague led the Wildcats in assists this season with 191, ranking second in the SEC in assists per game (4.8)

KNOXVILLE - Kentucky is winning. Sometimes, that's all that matters. In between the good and the bad, the second-ranked Wildcats have enough talent to overcome glaring weaknesses and adversity. Kentucky won two of its first three league games on the road this week and has racked up nine straight victories since losing at Indiana more than a month ago. Kentucky has freshmen Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on its side to make up for up and down outings by veteran performers Terrence Jones, Doron Lamb and Darius Miller.

LEXINGTON - Freshman point guard Marquis Teague has had to deal with comparisons to John Wall and Brandon Knight, John Calipari's first two point guards at Kentucky, both of whom were first round NBA draft picks after their freshman seasons, but he's helped Kentucky to a 32-2 record going into Thursday's NCAA tournament opener against Western Kentucky in Louisville. He's averaging 9.4 points, 4.7 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game. Several media members who cover Kentucky offered their opinions on his play this season: Mike Pratt, UK radio network.

Darius Miller may have earned his starting job back. The senior could return to the starting lineup when second-ranked Kentucky takes on Radford in a 7 p.m. tipoff tonight at Rupp¿Arena. Miller came off the bench and scored 13 points in the Wildcats' 75-65 triumph over Old Dominion last Sunday in Connecticut. Kentucky coach John Calipari hinted that he may insert Miller in place of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in the team's starting rotation Tuesday in preparation for his team's pre-Thanksgiving contest against the Highlanders in the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

Jeff Sheppard has high hopes for the highly touted recruits on their way to Kentucky, but he also has tempered expectations. The former Kentucky star said he's excited about the players coach John Calipari is bringing into the program, and particularly those who will be arriving in the coming weeks as part of this year's No. 1-ranked recruiting class. However, Sheppard said the shortcomings of last season's Kentucky team should underscore the fact that there's no guarantee of success, and he said his fellow Kentucky fans should realize just how difficult it is to do what will be expected of the incoming freshmen.

When Kentucky fans look back at 2012, they'll have to remember the remarkable basketball season that coach John Calipari's team had that ended with UK's eighth national championship. Anthony Davis swept most of the preseason awards, was the top pick in the NBA draft and played on the gold-medal winning Olympic team. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was the second pick in the draft and Terrence Jones and Marquis Teague were also a first-round picks. Two other Cats - Darius Miller and Doron Lamb - were drafted in the second round.

LEXINGTON - The more point guard Ryan Harrow plays and improves, the better Kentucky is going to be. Just ask guard Julius Mays, who likely will play less as Harrow's minutes increase. “He makes a big difference,” said Mays after Saturday's 74-46 win over Portland. “He is a true point guard. He can create for himself and others. He really changes the whole game.” And that's what UK desperately needs - a point guard that can be a game changer for him and his team. Kentucky coach John Calipari liked what he saw from Harrow, who missed four games this season for personal reasons.

LEXINGTON - Guards Ryan Harrow and Julius Mays likely will not be 100 percent when Kentucky opens the season Friday night against Maryland. Before the Wildcats left Thursday for New York, Calipari said that Harrow, the starting point guard, missed Wednesday's practice “with some sort of flu” and that Mays “took the day off to make sure his leg” was OK after straining his knee Monday in the Wildcats' exhibition win over Transylvania. “There was nothing structurally or anything wrong, but he didn't practice,” Calipari said of Mays.

It's not how you start but how you finish. Although he knows his team could open at 0-2, Kentucky coach John Calipari hopes the Wildcats emulate last year's performance down the stretch this season. “I like what they'll look like in March in my mind,” Calipari said. “Right now, that's the only thing I can live with. I have a vision of what they're going to be in March and that's what I try to drive them to.” Kentucky was picked to finish first in the Southeastern Conference by members of the national and conference media on Monday.

Ed Isaacson of NBAdraftblog.com spends all season evaluating players who will be picked in the NBA draft and now he's already getting set to start watching those players just drafted as well as others in summer league play. Isaacson says his site has “real analysis and true player reports” that are more than just statistics. He offered these insights into how the draft played out for six University of Kentucky players. Question: What do you feel getting Anthony Davis, Austin Rivers and Darius Miller adds to New Orleans?

In the last three years, John Calipari has done everything he promised he would when he became the head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. He's made the Wildcats a factor in the national championship race. Kentucky reached the Elite Eight in 2010, advanced to the Final Four in 2011 and won the national title in 2012. He's brought the best available talent to Kentucky. The Wildcats had five players, including four freshmen, picked in the first round of the 2010 NBA draft.

Even though some NBA mock drafts have Kentucky forward Terrence Jones falling out of the lottery in tonight's draft, ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas thinks Jones will still go in the middle of the first round. “I don't think he hurt himself at all by coming back to Kentucky for his sophomore season,” said Bilas. “I think he is a better player now for having come back. I don't think last year he would have been picked as high (in the draft) as some people say and think.

One reason that it was easy to project that Kentucky might have a special team last season was the way the incoming freshmen players seemed to bond during the all-star circuit months before they got to Kentucky. Anthony Davis, Marquis Teague and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist were already friendly from AAU¿competitions and Kyle Wiltjer blended in nicely while playing in the same postseason all-star games they did. That chemistry carried over to UK - “we knew from the first day together that our team could be special because everyone got along,” said Wiltjer - and the Wildcats won their eighth national championship.

LEXINGTON - He went from what Kentucky coach John Calipari deemed “shaky” early in the season to perhaps UK's key player in Final Four wins over Louisville and Kansas and that's why Marquis Teague is headed for the NBA rather than returning for a sophomore season with the Cats. He's expected to be the fifth straight point guard - Tyreke Evans, Derrick Rose, John Wall and Brandon Knight were the others - to become a first-round pick. Teague led the Wildcats in assists this season with 191, ranking second in the SEC in assists per game (4.8)