Column: Cats’ perimeter ‘D’ needs a fix, and quick

If fixing 3-point defense somehow wasn’t at the top of John Calipari’s to-do list before Thursday, it better move up.

And on that to-do list, he better write it in all caps. Underline it, too. And slap some exclamation marks on the end.

Until Thursday, UK had never given up any more than eight 3-pointers to a player in a game (Nick Winbush tied that mark Monday for Miami of Ohio). No player, opponent or not, had ever hit any more than 10 bombs in any UK game.

Sam Houston State’s Corey Allmond dropped 11 3-pointers Thursday.

As a team, Sam Houston State hit 18 long-range shots, a record for UK opponents in a single contest. And the Bearkats didn’t hit shots merely by volume; they shot 47.4 percent from deep, or 18-of-38.

When the Cats got Sam Houston inside, it was no contest. UK won the rebounding margin by 15 and blocked 12 shots compared to the Bearkats’ one. Freshman 6-footer Eric Bledsoe had a thundering block of his own, wedging the ball between backboard and rim.

But UK’s defense inside has not been called into question, nor should it be (at least not yet). It’s outside the 3-point arc where the Cats are lost.

“This may be, at this point, the worst defensive team I’ve had since 1988,” Calipari said. “At the end of the day, if we’re going to be what everyone thinks we’re going to be, we have to be one of the best defensive teams in the country.”

With such a young team, mistakes will happen. Players will fail to communicate — which is largely what Calipari and the players blamed for Thursday’s meltdown — and heads will hang. But young players have to learn from their mistakes quickly, especially on a team so reliant upon underclassmen.

If John Wall gives his man an open 3 — which happened more than enough times for him to remember Thursday — he can’t let it get under his skin and let it happen the next trip down the floor.

And if the reason for that breakdown is miscommunication, the Cats’ floor general certainly has to take command.

“I guess guys don’t want to talk,” Wall said. “We’re not talking like we’re supposed to, and I wasn’t talking like I was supposed to. Ramon (Harris) was probably the main guy, the only one talking on defense tonight. Until you get everyone on defense talking, we’re going to struggle.”

Calipari agreed that of nine players who logged minutes Thursday, Harris was the only one doing his job on defense in terms of guarding the perimeter. Problem is, Harris only played five minutes.

Of those five players that logged more than five minutes — the starters — all were responsible for giving up 18 3-pointers Thursday. Even DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson, the Cats’ monsters down low.

“We are the quarterbacks of the defense, and we need to talk a lot more,” said Cousins of a big man’s role in contributing to perimeter defense. “We have to communicate better being the big guys on the team.”

Cousins seemed a bit distracted after the game, even though he put up monster numbers: 27 points, 18 rebounds and two blocks.

“We got all this hype, and we’re the team that people are breaking records against,” he said.

UK found ways to win this week because the Cats were so much more athletic than Miami of Ohio and Sam Houston State. After Thursday’s game, Wall even admitted his team “got away with one.” And as the season progresses and Calipari hunkers down on the defense in practice, improvements should be made.

But somewhere in Arkansas, Rotnei Clarke must be stuttering and stammering trying to contain his excitement over playing that defense on that Rupp Arena floor in late January.

And in Knoxville, Bruce Pearl has to be jumping for joy — possibly quite literally, knowing how animated he is — because of how much his team loves to throw up threes.

Even Rider, which shot 62.5 percent from deep in last week’s upset of Mississippi State, might be feeling good. The Broncs visit Lexington on Saturday afternoon.

You better be writing in Sharpie on that to-do list, Cal.

James Pennington is a journalism senior. E-mail jpennington@kykernel.com.