Marquis Teague, apparently, heard the criticism pointed his way about whether he was the right point guard for this talented and balanced UK team. At the very least, head coach John Calipari heard. Either way, the doubts were known internally.

“When you start getting drilled in the paper, and everybody’s killing you on the blogs — they were telling us to start Doron Lamb,” Calipari said, pointing a finger at one reporter who had written that very statement. “You start reading that as a player, you’re like, ‘what?’”

The papers and the blogs aren’t saying that anymore.

Not after Teague averaged 7.5 points, 5.8 assists and 2.1 turnovers in his last eight games.

“The last month, he’s really focused and listened and practiced hard,” Calipari said, “and now he’s transformed into what one of our typical point guards play like.”

Maybe not quite. Teague still isn’t the same type of player as Derrick Rose or John Wall. But he doesn’t have to be. Not on this team, not with these players surrounding him on the floor.

Teague’s primary concern is running the team and directing the offense — not scoring 32 points per game, as Calipari said Teague thought he could do when he got to UK.

Whether it was the blogs, or Calipari’s constant carping, or simply a freshman learning the ropes of college basketball, Teague evolved. He didn’t need to score to be great.

In 15 non-conference games, Teague shot 9.2 times per game. In 11 conference games, he’s shot 7.7 times per game. He hadn’t shot more than six times in five games until Vanderbilt, when he recognized he had a huge mismatch against Brad Tinsley.

And so Calipari’s (very) vocal instructions have reduced in number over the last month.

“You can’t really yell at Marquis for how he’s playing,” Darius Miller said. “He’s being our floor general, getting everybody where they need to be, and it’s made us a better team.”

Teague has, since the beginning of the season, been seen as the one player who could most determine UK’s long-term success. If he doesn’t emerge as a point guard capable of making all that talent mesh, he would hinder the chances at title No. 8 — maybe even be the single reason it didn’t happen, as Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis tweeted last week.

If he does, UK’s collective ceiling pushes higher. Everyone else, already playing well, can play even better.

At this point, it looks like the latter will be the case. Against the best two opponents in the league, Florida and Vanderbilt, Teague turned in stellar games against both. He scored 12 points and had 10 assists against the Gators and then had 13 points, eight assists and one turnover (while completely controlling the entire first half) against the Commodores.

“My confidence is getting back where it used to be,” Teague said.

The papers and the blogs won’t be there to tear it down now.

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