Terrence Jones’ finger

In his second game back from a finger injury, Terrence Jones scored two points on 1-for-9 shooting but grabbed 11 rebounds.

“He’s just not all the way back yet,” head coach John Calipari said.

Calipari noted a few plays where Jones could have gone up and dunked but opted not to. Jones’ finger was still taped up, and it seems to bother him most shooting the ball, as he missed all four free throw attempts.

“I think within the next week and a half, he’ll be fine,” Calipari said.

Free throw shooting

Calipari said he recently implemented a new punishment system for missing free throws: for every miss in a game, players would have to run a 33-second sprint in practice the next day.

“I’m just challenging them that way,” Calipari said.

Whether it’s that or something else, UK’s free throw shooting has picked up. In the last four games, UK has made 77 percent of its free throws, and its season average now sits at 71 percent.

Not only are the Cats making them, but they’re getting more chances. UK has shot 37, 33 and 43 free throws in the previous three games.

Against Louisville, Anthony Davis in particular made the most of the free throw line, hitting 12 of 13. That led to an 18-point day on just four field goal attempts.

“I know I’m a great free throw shooter,” Davis said. “I went in a slump, but now I just have to keep going out there, keep concentrating and practicing.”

Point guard play

Marquis Teague’s line: four points on 1-for-8 shooting, with five assists and four turnovers.

“He’s still not my point guard yet,” Calipari said. “There were things we were supposed to do that he just chose not to do in this game.”

Teague went through a six-game stretch where committed three or fewer turnovers each game, but he’s now on a four-game streak of four or more turnovers.

Teague’s continued improvement will be vital to UK. Calipari still doesn’t think the offense is clicking like it should, and Teague is a large part of what’s needed for the offense to properly evolve.

Poor shooting

UK shot under 30 percent — and won.

“That’s a good day,” Calipari said.

It was the first time UK had shot less than 30 percent and won since Dec. 6, 2003, in a 52-50 win over UCLA, according to the Associated Press. UK has not shot less than 30 percent, in a win or a loss, in Calipari’s three years.

The Cats were able to overcome the shooting with defense and rebounding.

Louisville had a bad night of its own, shooting 32.3 percent, including 4-for-18 on 3-pointers.

And UK crushed Louisville on the glass, with a 57-31 advantage on the glass. That included 20 offensive rebounds while Louisville got 21 defensive rebounds.

“We didn’t shoot it well, we had a lot of turnovers, but we buckled down and played defense and rebounded well,” Darius Miller said.

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