‘Growth is painful.’ Limiting turnovers a start for UK, but here’s what else needs work.

If there’s such a thing as remedial basketball, John Calipari said Tuesday that he has enrolled his Kentucky team.

“Probably going back to some old school (basketball),” the UK coach said. “We went too far and tried to do too much, and didn’t get established what we wanted to be.”

Calipari linked this rush to nowhere to playing Duke in the season’s opening game. Surely no UK fan needs to be reminded that Duke routed UK 118-84. That was Kentucky’s most lopsided loss in an opening game since 1926.

“Trying to get ready for a game I thought was important,” Calipari termed his second-guessing of Kentucky’s preseason priorities. The collateral damage was the setting aside of “all of the stuff that makes us who we are,” he said. “We didn’t do any of it. So we’ve kind of gone back and said, ‘Let’s just get this stuff down.’”

Offense and defense reflected this lack of attention on “all the little things that will make you good.” Staying in a defensive stance. Making the high-percentage — and prudent — plays.

Kentucky, which plays North Dakota on Wednesday night, has had more turnovers (34) than assists (28) in its first two games. The 14 turnovers in the first half alone against Southern Illinois stunned sophomore Quade Green.

When asked about UK committing 14 turnovers in 20 minutes, Green said, “Did we? I don’t know. That’s crazy.”

Mixing sporting metaphors, Green smiled as he attributed the turnovers to trying to make “the home run play instead of the hockey pass.”

Freshman Keldon Johnson also spoke of home run plays.

“I guess you see the crowd out there,” he said of UK’s early tendency to bypass the percentage play for an attempt at something more eye-catching.

Early in the news conference, Calipari said that if he stopped practice and asked players where teammates were positioned on the court at that moment, more than one would be stumped.

When asked if this lack of court awareness contributed to Kentucky’s 34 turnovers through two games, Calipari smiled as he said “our ‘bigs’ are contributing to our turnovers.”

Big men Reid Travis, PJ Washington, EJ Montgomery and Nick Richards all have more turnovers than assists. The four have combined for five assists and 18 turnovers.

Calipari said that the standard for any player is to have as many assists as turnovers. If that is achieved, “you can play basketball,” he said.

As for guards, a higher standard of three assists for every turnover applies, Calipari said. “If you’re under water, it starts questioning basketball skill.”

Through two games, guards Immanuel Quickley, Ashton Hagans, Green and Johnson have a combined 18 assists and 14 turnovers. Only Quickley (one assist, three turnovers) is “under water” at this embryonic stage of the season.

By contrast, UK’s first two opponents have better than a 2-to-1 ratio: 35 assists, 17 turnovers.

Calipari, who continued his early-season willingness to be blamed for Kentucky’s stumbling start, suggested that convincing victories in two exhibition games put him in an awkward position.

“You start winning, you put your head in the sand,” he said. “But you’re winning. You don’t want to screw it up. . . . I thought we were fine till we get smacked. Then you realize we really don’t know how to get open. . . .

“It’s not their fault. They’re going to do what I expect. . . . Growth is painful. I wish it was less painful. But it isn’t.”

Without saying so directly, Calipari seemed to return to a theme that Kentucky players are not good enough — at least in mid-November — to not be concerned with fundamentally sound play.

UK continues the search for a star player to serve as a catalyst the way Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did last season.

“Got to have a couple of them stand up and step away from the pack . . . ,” Calipari said. “It makes it easy on everybody. We don’t have that right now.”

Of course, Duke has it in triplicate in freshmen RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish and Zion Williamson.

“Their team just said, ‘You can’t guard me; I’m coming right at you,’” Calipari said of the Blue Devils. “And they were right.”

Johnson suggested that a return to old school values can transform Kentucky into a team that “can play with the best of them.”

Wednesday

North Dakota at No. 10 Kentucky

What: Ohio Valley Hardwood Showcase

When: 9 p.m.

TV: SEC Network

Radio: WLAP-630, WBUL-98.1

Records: UND 2-0, UK 1-1

Series: First meeting