Another 9 p.m. start for Kentucky? There’s no escaping the ‘vicious circle.’

For the second time in the season’s first three games, Kentucky will have the Big Blue Nation reaching for caffeine or other stimulants to its collective central nervous system.

UK’s game against North Dakota on Wednesday is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. That will come eight days after the Cats tipped off against Duke a few minutes after 10 p.m. That latter game did not end until after midnight. Maybe that’s why so many UK fans called it a night well before the final buzzer.

“When you’re old like me, it’s a challenge to stay up that late,” UK Coach John Calipari quipped Tuesday. He turns 60 on Feb. 10.

UK players Quade Green and Keldon Johnson shrugged off questions about another late start against North Dakota. “Everybody’s ready to lace their shoes up and hoop,” Green said Tuesday. “That’s it.”

But, nationally, there has been an undercurrent of unhappiness about these late-night starts.

“I never had a team that liked to play at nine o’clock. Never,” said Mike Tranghese, a consultant for Southeastern Conference basketball and a former commissioner of the Big East Conference.

Tranghese’s experience is telling because television coverage made the Big East a prominent basketball power in the 1980s. “It wouldn’t have became what it became without it,” he said.

There in may answer why teams are willing to play near or beyond midnight. The exposure television provides is valuable.

This is especially true for a traditional power like Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina or Kansas. These programs’ conference brethren can surf on the wave of publicity the blue bloods create.

Tranghese noted Indiana in the 1980s as an example. Then Indiana Coach Bob Knight complained bitterly about how ESPN’s Big Monday doubleheader put the Big Ten in the second game.

“Could Indiana have survived without being on TV at that time? Probably,” Tranghese said. “Is that in the best interest of the Big Ten? No.”

Tranghese suggested the late games are also in the interest of power programs like Kentucky.

“John is going to recruit against Kansas and everybody else,” Tranghese said of a hypothetical involving Calipari. “And they’re going to say, ‘Look how many times we’re on television in prime time.’ And Kentucky’s on — what? — less? It’s almost like a vicious circle.”

Chris Turner, the vice president of programming for the SEC Network, said that there’s a simple formula for how television sets game times: the more attractive game is assigned a later start in order to draw viewers from the West Coast.

Traditional powers like Kentucky are more likely to draw viewer interest from coast to coast, thus these programs have more late-night games. The opener against Duke was the first of eight games on Kentucky’s schedule this season that will start at 8:30 p.m. or later.

“It’s kind of Programming 101,” Turner said.

Tranghese and Turner said that conferences and television networks try to work together so the burden of late-night games does not fall too heavily on a particular program.

Herro shooting

No UK player has missed more three-point shots than — surprise — freshman Tyler Herro. Two games is a small sample size from which to draw conclusions. His 5-for-5 free-throw shooting suggests he hasn’t lost the shooting touch he displayed in the Bahamas.

As he did after the victory over Southern Illinois, Calipari said players can take more time to decide on an offensive move on the high school level. “As you move up the ladder, you have to see the shot before you catch the ball,” the UK coach said.

Calipari welcomed Herro’s early-season misses.

“I want to know when it’s not going good, what are you now?” he said. “How do you play? . . . Does that crush every other area of your game? Or do you keep playing? Do you keep taking open shots?”

In UK’s first two games, Herro had a 5-to-2 assist-to-turnover ratio and ranked among the top three in rebounds (12), steals (one) and blocks (two).

Name game

In assessing North Dakota, Calipari said, “Forget the name. They’re a terrific basketball team.”

Actually, even a cursory look at North Dakota basketball makes it impossible to forget the team’s name.

Three years ago this coming Sunday, the school adopted “Fighting Hawks” as its athletic nickname. The previous nickname, “Fighting Sioux,” caused the NCAA to threaten to banish North Dakota, which had been a Division II athletic program until beginning the process of joining D-I in 2008.

Until 2012-13, North Dakota played in the Great West, a group of programs all transitioning to Division I. North Dakota hoped to play in The Summit League, which included North Dakota State, South Dakota and South Dakota State.

But the commissioner of The Summit League at the time objected to the nickname Fighting Sioux.

So North Dakota joined the Big Sky Conference while votes were held on a new nickname. Ultimately, voters chose Fighting Hawks over North Stars, Nodaks, Sundogs (a rainbow during winter) and Roughriders.

During the period of lobbying and voting while longing to join The Summit League, North Dakota did not have a nickname. “Very, very tough to write press releases,” said Alec Stocker Johnson, assistant director of athletic communications.

Etc.

▪ North Dakota, 2-0, has 11 players on its roster who had never played in a college basketball game until this season. The Fighting Hawks beat Northland College and Milwaukee in their first two games.

▪ Tom Hart and Jon Sundvold will call the game for the SEC Network.

▪ The SEC announced Tuesday that it has extended its agreement with the Nashville Sports Council in a deal that could keep the SEC Tournament in Nashville through 2035. Under the terms of the new agreement, the tournament will be played in the Music City through 2030, with the exception of 2022, with an option to extend the agreement through 2035.