Assistant coach Tony Barbee, who substituted for Kentucky Coach John Calipari at Friday’s news conference, said the Wildcats improved significantly on defense in the last game.
A grading of film of the victory over North Dakota suggested close to 25 minutes of satisfactory defense, he said. That was an increase from “10 or 15 minutes” against Southern Illinois five days earlier. And Duke’s 118 points in the opening game spoke (shouted?) for itself as only the second time in Calipari’s 10 seasons as coach that a UK opponent hit the century mark and the most by an opponent since North Carolina scored 121 on Dec.