UK won title in 2012, was runner-up in 2014. This season’s Cats share traits with both.

More than once during the preseason and first month of the season, John Calipari likened his current Cats to Kentucky’s team in 2013-14. Multiple freshmen starting and force fed the responsibility that goes with prominent roles. Disjointed play. Poor records away from Rupp Arena (6-7) and against ranked opponents (1-6).

Then came a happy ending in the NCAA Tournament. Credit went to Aaron Harrison’s clutch shooting and the tweak hyped repeatedly by Calipari (Andrew Harrison discovered the benefit of passing to an open teammate on the wing after drawing defenders with a drive into the lane).

More recently, Calipari offered another comparison. He suggested this season’s UK team resembled the 2012 national champions in what sounded like a telling way. The topic on his weekly radio show on Dec. 10 was Kentucky’s need to find a selfless leader who made the game easier for his teammates.

“Who led that team?” Calipari asked rhetorically of his 2012 champions. “Was it our point guard? It wasn’t our point guard. It was Anthony (Davis) and Michael Kidd (-Gilchrist).”

The inference was that Kentucky would not look to its point guards for leadership this season, at least not at this early stage of team development.

More recently, Calipari preached the virtue of players being “willing passers.” One of UK’s former point guards interpreted.

“For me,” Roger Harden said Wednesday, “that’s coach-speak for we need better chemistry. . . . We need to play with one purpose.”

Harden, who personified the pass-first role of a point guard in leading Kentucky in assists in 1984-85 and 1985-86, had the good sense to feed the ball to All-American Kenny Walker. But, Harden said, even with Walker making him look good, the adjustment to playing point guard in college was not easy.

“It is the most difficult position for any player in college to adjust to,” Harden said. “You’re adjusting to what the coach wants, what he wants to run. You’re trying to get the ball to the people who need to get the ball.

“At the same time, get your little niche when you need to assert yourself into the offense. When you have the ball in your hands, you have a lot of power over what goes on.”

As Uncle Ben said in the first “Spiderman” movie, with great power comes great responsibility.

Mike Pratt, who led UK in assists in two of Dan Issel’s three seasons, suggested this weight of responsibility might affect the play of the current point guards, Ashton Hagans and Immanuel Quickley.

“I don’t think this team has totally figured out how they want to play . . . ,” said Pratt, who does color commentary on radio broadcasts of Kentucky games. “They play hesitant out there . . . and maybe a little afraid to make a mistake.”

Paradoxically, apprehension about making a mistake can lead to turnovers, Pratt said. Through the season’s first 10 games, UK has more turnovers (143) than assists (140). Only one of Calipari’s previous nine Kentucky teams finished a season with more turnovers than assists: 2013-14.

Earlier this month, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said that no point guard such as Duke’s Tre Jones had emerged to lead Kentucky. Through Tuesday, Jones had an assist-to-turnover ratio better than 5-to-1 (5.6 assists, 1.1 turnovers). He had 12 turnovers in 315 minutes. In the opener against Kentucky, Jones had seven assists and no turnovers in almost 31 minutes of play.

“They have a bunch of very good guards,” Bilas said of the Cats on Dec. 3. “But there is nobody right now that’s the same sort of commanding presence that Tre Jones is.”

Calipari has described UK’s point guard play as evolving. After Kentucky lost to Seton Hall, he said of Hagans, “It’s just going to be a step at a time.”

Of Quickley, Calipari said, “We just need him to be more aggressive, to react more than process (information) . . . because it slows us down.”

After Kentucky beat Utah last weekend, Calipari described Hagans and Quickley as “typical freshmen” who were getting better. Both Quickley (19-11) and Hagans (31-18) had positive assist-to-turnover ratios.

Quickley echoed the sentiment. “Ashton Hagans and I are getting a lot more comfortable running the offense,” he said after the Utah game.

Comfort leads to confident and aggressive play. The fear of making mistakes fades away, Pratt said.

Next game

No. 19 Kentucky vs No. 9 North Carolina

What: CBS Sports Classic

When: 5:15 p.m. Saturday

Where: United Center in Chicago

TV: CBS-27