Guiding nation’s least experienced team? This coach can relate to Cal’s challenge.

Sunday night’s game between Kentucky and the University of Illinois at Chicago features a lot of experience at being inexperienced. UIC was the UK of last season. That is to say, the least experienced team in Division I basketball.

According to human slide rule Ken Pomeroy, Kentucky is easily the least experienced of the 351 Division I teams this season. The UK players who had gotten in games through Thursday averaged 0.20 seasons of previous college experience, he calculated. Maryland Eastern Shore ranked next to last with its players averaging 0.43 seasons of experience.

Last season, UIC had the least previous experience: 0.67 seasons per player. Coach Steve McClain laughed when told that a preseason magazine referred to UIC this season as “a team of experienced sophomores and juniors.” Such is the state of college basketball, he said, that playing one season makes someone a graybeard.

When asked about the challenges presented by widespread inexperience, McClain said, “You spend every practice teaching. It’s not about winning.”

Perhaps realizing what he had just said, McClain immediately amended that statement.

“It is about winning the game,” he said. “But you’ve got to win every day in practice. You’re trying to teach them how to play hard, how to play the right way and yet still game plan and get ready for games. It’s a whole different feeling than when you walk in and you have veteran players.”

In adjusting to the college level, McClain said it’s expected and required that players will grasp defense before offense. So UK Coach John Calipari’s emphasis on defense and rebounding is no surprise.

“If you can get them guarding really well, then you’ve created the culture that’s going to win down the road,” the UIC coach said.

That UK has limited opponents to 38-percent shooting (27.6 percent from three-point range) and enjoyed a plus 9.5 rebounding advantage caught McClain’s eye.

When asked why the adjustment to offense takes more time, McClain cited that frequently under-appreciated factor: the other team.

“You can simulate offense in practice all you want,” he said. “But when you get in a game, teams say, ‘We’re going to take this away or that away.’ If you have veterans, they go, ‘OK, that’s good. We know how to adjust to that.’ Young players, you’ve got to adjust for them.”

Calipari jokes (?) that he’s too old to be a hands-on leader, but Kentucky’s roster demands that.

Those outside the program only see talented players, while a coach looks at the process of building a team, McClain said.

“You can’t let that frustrate you as a coach,” he said. A moment later he admitted he’s frustrated. An overtime loss to Saint Joseph’s and a second-half collapse against Fort Wayne still rankle.

McClain, once an assistant on Tom Crean’s staff at Indiana, saw a hopeful sign last spring when he presented his players a scheduling option. UIC could play in the Adolph Rupp Classic, which would include a game at Kentucky. Or UIC could play in last week’s Battle for Atlantis, which would mean spending several late-November days in the Bahamas.

The players chose a game at Kentucky.

“That told me we’re starting to get the right kids here,” McClain said. “They want that.”

The UIC coach liked that his players made what he considered a veteran’s choice: the challenge of playing at Kentucky rather than fun and frolic in the Bahamas.

“It told me I got some guys that are serious about basketball,” McClain said, “and not, ‘Let’s go to the Bahamas and play in the water.’”

UIC leftovers

1. Dominique Matthews is the younger brother of former UK player Charles Matthews. A 6-2 sophomore guard, he averages 6.5 points for UIC. He’s struggling with his shooting, having made only seven of 26 shots (four of 18 from three-point range).

2. Dikembe Dixson was the Horizon League Freshman of the Year last season despite tearing an ACL in the season’s 10th game. He leads UIC in scoring at 14.3 ppg. Tai Odiase was the Horizon League’s Defensive Player of the Year.

3. Although the United Center is, maybe, a 10-minute drive from the UIC campus, Coach Steve McClain did not go to the Kentucky-Kansas game. NCAA rules prohibit a coach from attending the game of a future opponent. “I could have gone over and watched the Michigan State game,” McClain said of the Spartans playing Duke in Game 1 of the Champions Classic. “But then I couldn’t have stayed for the Kentucky game.”

The prohibition, which went into effect during the 2013-14 season, was intended as a cost-cutting measure. Previously, assistant coaches regularly traveled to games to do what was called a live-scout. “So you could get all the (play) calls,” McClain said.

The NCAA allows coaches to watch future opponents at one-site tournaments such as the Maui Invitational. McClain watched UK play Kansas on television.

Legacy delayed

At the least, last week’s news that ballyhooed freshman Michael Porter Jr., will undergo back surgery and likely miss this season delays a player trying to meet his own outsized expectations.

When asked at last month’s SEC Media Day if he wanted to be considered Missouri’s greatest player, Porter said, “Of course. I want to be the best college player to ever play in college. So I for sure want to be the best player to ever play for Mizzou.”

This historical context apparently contributed to his decision to sign with Missouri rather than, say, a program like Kentucky.

“I kind of wanted to be the kind of player that went to a school and made a difference,” he said. “I didn’t want to go to a Kansas or a Kentucky, where I could just be another great player. I wanted to go to a school where I could make a really big difference and leave a legacy.”

Filled with the optimism that’s part of mid-October media days, Porter said he’d consider being a one-and-done player. “But if we don’t do as well as I believe we can do as a team, and I still do great individually and (am) projected in the top five (or) top three, I don’t know if I’ll go. I might come back because, like I said, I want to leave a legacy.”

Fowl shots

The three-for-15 free-throwing shooting against East Tennessee State was UK’s worst accuracy from the line in John Calipari’s nine seasons as coach. It was also the worst by a Kentucky team in at least the last 38 seasons.

The previous mark for free-throw futility since 1980 was 33.3-percent accuracy. The five times a UK team made only a third of its free throws were:

▪  Four of 12 against UConn in the 2011 national semifinal game. (Terrence Jones was 0-for-5.)

▪  Five of 15 against Penn State on Nov. 25, 2000. (Gerald Fitch was 0-for-4.)

▪  Four of 12 against Pittsburgh on Nov. 27, 1998. (Scott Padgett was 1-for-4.)

▪  Five of 15 against Indiana on Dec. 6, 1986. (James Blackmon was 0-for-3.)

▪  One of three against Auburn in the 1984 SEC Tournament finals. (The only UK player who got to the line, Melvin Turpin, made one of three.)

Coach Trotsky?

Several times before tip-off and once at halftime UK plays videos that highlight its storied program.

Adolph Rupp (nine times), Joe B. Hall (five) and John Calipari (four) appear prominently in the videos. Tubby Smith appears twice. But no mention is made of three relatively recent former UK coaches: Eddie Sutton, Rick Pitino and Billy Gillispie.

Nathan Schwake, UK’s Associate A.D. for Marketing and Licensing, said the trio’s absence is incidental and not an attempt to give the three the Leon Trotsky treatment by erasing them from the record. Each video is less than two minutes in length, so being left on the cutting room floor is part of the process, he said.

Name prospect

Last week Vanderbilt announced the signing of a five-star prospect: 6-9 forward Simisola Shittu. Seldom has a pronunciation guide seemed more pertinent.

Alas, Vandy said his name is pronounced as it’s spelled: impolite word and then TU.

In its release announcing the signing, Vandy said Shittu was “a power forward cut out of the Kevin Garnett cloth.”

Shittu, a native of Burlington, Ontario, Canada, was named MVP of last summer’s NBA Top 100 Camp. He averaged 18.1 points and 7.7 rebounds.

Other programs that offered Shittu included UK, Arizona, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Oregon and South Carolina.

Happy birthday

To sports entrepreneur Jim Host. He turned 80 on Thanksgiving Day. … To Steve Lochmueller. He turned 65 on Saturday. … To Associate Coach Kenny Payne. He turned 51 on Saturday. … To first-year LSU coach Will Wade. He turns 35 on Sunday (today). … To Larry Johnson. He turns 63 on Tuesday. … To Nick Richards. He turns 20 on Wednesday. … To Julius Randle. He turns 23 on Wednesday. … To Jamal Mashburn. He turns 45 on Wednesday.

This story was originally published November 25, 2017 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Guiding nation’s least experienced team? This coach can relate to Cal’s challenge.."