Any Terrence Jones comparisons to Michael Jordan at this point may be just a tad premature.One is averaging 18.9 points and 10.0 rebounds in his first 10 collegiate games. The other led his collegiate team to a national championship, won six NBA championships and captured NBA MVP honors five times in his career.And yet, head coach John Calipari’s example Monday of Jordan, as it relates to Jones, actually made sense in a sort of Calipari kind of way. The second-year UK coach pointed to Jordan’s steadfast preparation for every game as something Jones could learn from.”When he played, he was the target,” Calipari said of Jordan. “Everybody that went against him was going to give their best. Everybody was going to get a good night’s sleep and be ready to go, and they were going to go try and make their name at his expense, every night, 82 nights, every season if he was on that basketball floor.” Jones, as Kentucky’s clear-cut go-to scorer, is still finding his way as the primary option of the Wildcat offense. As an overlooked signee out of Portland, Ore. (yes, even a top-20 recruit can be underrated), Jones grabbed early season headlines with a 16-point, 17-rebound performance against Washington and another 27-point, 17-rebound outing in the win over Notre Dame. But lately, despite the still ever-present gaudy numbers, Jones’ consistency has wavered just a bit. Teams know the scouting report on Jones and are starting to guard him a little differently. When double teams come, Jones is making a concerted effort to kick the ball out, sometimes at the expense of his own production. And though he usually makes an impact by the end of the game, Calipari hasn’t been pleased with Jones’ first-half performances. In both of the last two games, Jones has gone to the bench early with foul trouble.”For me, the last couple of games, my fouls have been on offense,” Jones said. “Just playing fast in the dribble-drive, you have to slow the game down in your head. I need to focus more on just not having dumb fouls on offense.”Calipari thinks the main problem with Jones’ slow starts is his pregame focus and mentality. That’s where Calipari’s comparison of Jordan comes into play. “What do you do to get yourself ready?” Calipari said. “(Jordan) said, ‘I do something different every week. One game I’ll think about my own children, and for that week that’s what it’s about, my children. There will be another game, I’ll go into the arena next week and I’ll pick out a young man in the stands and say I’m playing for him, that’s who I’m playing for, and every game I’m playing for him. One week I was thinking about my dad, and the whole week that’s all I thought about, was getting ready and playing for my dad.’ “Calipari would like Jones to come up with something similar. Some players like listening to music, others enjoy taking a nap, but whatever Jones decides to do, Calipari would like to see Jones latch on to something to get him going earlier.It was a problem before the North Carolina game, Jones’ first subpar collegiate performance, and it still appears to be a learning process for Jones.”What he has to learn as a young player is this isn’t AAU,” Calipari said. “There’s not another game at 3. There’s not another game at 7. We’re not going to McDonald’s to get a burger and jag around and not worry about warming up. Just go play.”With an emphasis to become more unselfish as a team, Jones admitted that he’s fallen victim to looking for his teammates a bit too much.”If somebody’s got it going, you can catch yourself watching,” Jones said. “I’d say we’re playing better as a team and I haven’t needed to try to take over the game because we’re playing so good as a team.”Once Jones has gotten going, he’s continued to thrive. After the slow start against Mississippi Valley State, Jones scored 15 second-half points.The key now is duplicating that from the start, which could be a challenge with Wednesday’s 1 p.m. start against Winthrop.  “It’s a scary game because we’re going home for Christmas,” Calipari said. “And don’t think everyone in that locker room, managers, players, coaches, is not thinking what time does this game end. It’s just how it is. It’s just what we have to deal with.”Calipari says he’s had no contact with Dominican Republic: Just days after Louisville head coach Rick Pitino accepted a job to coach the Puerto Rico national basketball team, reports have surfaced that Calipari could be interested in the Dominican Republic national team job.On Tuesday, Calipari didn’t rule out the possibility but said he’s had no such contact with the Dominican national team.”It would be an honor to be considered for something like that, but I don’t know the timeframe,” Calipari said. “I don’t even know if I could do it, so where that got started or whether they’re considering me, I don’t know. There’s been no contact.”Outspoken about the summer recruiting period because it would allow him more time with his family, among other reasons, Calipari was asked why he would even consider the job if it meant he’d be split away from his family, to which he replied was “a good point.””No one has approached me about coaching anybody or being a consultant for a national team, whether it be China or anyone else,” Calipari said. “There’s stuff out there but no one has come to me and said this is what it would mean.”