John Clay's Sidelines

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Some quick notables after the Kentucky Colonels, er, Kentucky Wildcats 102-92 win over Sam Houston State.

• John Calipari is right. This is not a good defensive team. Not yet, anyway. And you though the ball-line defense had trouble against the three-pointer. UK’s last two opponents have made 33 of 54 64 three-point shots, for 61.1 51.6 percent. Miami of Ohio made 15 of 26 on Monday. Sam Houston State made 18 of 38 tonight. On his way to a ridiciculous 37 points, Corey Allmond made 11 of 16 triples. That had Calipari all but pulling his hair out in the post-game press conference, saying this was his worst team since 1988, that at time his head was about to “pop off,” that his team did some things he hadn’t seen in a long, long time.

• Communication breakdowns are the biggest problem on defense. The Cats left shooters open all night long. You’d think after Allmond made a couple someone might close-out on him. Don’t remember seeing that happen once. Although Darius Miller did pick up a foul for crashing into a 3-point shooter, not Allmond. Sam Houston had 23 assists on its 29 baskets. That’s good for Sam Houston, but bad for the Cats.

• “The young and the defenseless,” says loyal blog commenter Gary, and he’s right. This is a young team. And these freshmen made their reputations on offense, not defense. They aren’t used to playing lock-down defense. And they certainly aren’t used to playing lock-down defense with teammates. That’s the key. For all the pre-season talk about how this team will jell offensively, we overlooked the importance of it jelling defensively. The better Tubby Smith defensive teams played together on defense. They knew what their teammates were doing. They talked, helped, and got the job done. This team has a long way to go in that respect.

• DeMarcus Cousins was outstanding. The freshman forward got off to a blazing start with 10 points and eight rebounds in the first eight minutes. He ended up with 27 points and 18 boards. He would have had more had he not missed six of his 13 free throws. Cousins had eight offensive boardsd. The best part is that the rookie said Wednesday he wanted to start faster, and he made it happen.

• Kentucky did not score a single point off the bench. The Cats got all 102 points from their starters. In fact, the bench only took three shots. Calipari said that wasn’t by design, but he wanted to win the game.

• UK shot 60 percent, its best percentage from the field since it shot 64.4 percent against Lamar on Dec. 3, 2008. That was also the game that Patrick Patterson scored a career-high 31 points. UK averaged 1.23 points per possession tonight, best since it averaged 1.25 on Feb. 21 last season at home against Tennessee. Sam Houston State averaged 1.108 per possession, less than Miami of Ohio’s 1.116 on Monday night.

• With Sam Houston throwing in so many threes, you may have not noticed that Kentucky hit 11 of 22 from behind the line. That’s the best showing since the Cats were also 11 of 22 at Arkansas on Feb. 14 of last season.

• John Wall and Eric Bledsoe each had six turnovers. And six assists. Calipari was happy with the 21 assists, much better than the 11 on Monday night. But the Cats turned it over 23 times. The Cats averaged a turnover every 3.6 possessions tonight, compared to 4.3 possessions against Miami and 3.1 possessions against Morehead.