At Memphis, it was his team’s free-throw shooting. At Kentucky, it’s his team’s 3-point shooting.Every team has an Achilles heel and the UK men’s basketball team appears to be no exception. Although there have been few bones to pick with the Cats’ 27-2 record this season, one area that’s brought a bit of ire from fans of late is Kentucky’s 3-point shooting.Over the last four games, UK has hit just 12-of-73 shots (16.4 percent) from behind the arc, well below its 34.7 percent season average.On Tuesday, when asked about the Cats’ recent outside shooting woes, Calipari seemed unconcerned.”I’m comfortable with Darius (Miller), Darnell (Dodson), John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, DeAndre Liggins,” Calipari said. “You’re talking about guys who over the season have shot the ball as well as anybody in the country. They hit a spell where they don’t shoot it well. I’ve done this so long it doesn’t faze me. Now, if they’re buying into what everybody is saying, it might faze them.”Based on the season’s entire body of work, Calipari doesn’t believe his team struggles shooting the ball, and the numbers – to an extent – back him up. With just one week of the regular season left to play, UK ranks 148th in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage.In regards to the recent-four game shooting slump, Calipari said it’s more mental than mechanical, choosing golf as a point of comparison.”You go through spells where you don’t make shots,” Calipari said. “It’s just how it is. … They’re shooting 72, 71, 69 and then they pull up to that first tee and something doesn’t feel right and now they’ve got an 86 and an 88. They go into that clubhouse and they think, ‘Oh my god, I can’t golf anymore.’ You just shot a 69 10 days ago. Get that thought back in your mind.”Calipari said even players like NBA great Michael Jordan went through brief shooting spells. The cure, he believes, his hard work in the gym.However, he isn’t going to stress over one four-game stretch, even if the margin of victories have become considerably closer.”I’d like to make every free throw, make every jumper, never turn it over, but daggone I can’t even get that in a dream,” Calipari said.UK will try to rebound from its second loss of the season Wednesday night at Georgia at 8 p.m. on the SEC Network. The Cats defeated the Bulldogs 76-68 in the first meeting Jan. 9 in Lexington. “This isn’t an end-all game for us,” Calipari said. “This is the next one. You could get dinged here. I said it earlier in the year, you get dinged, (but) it’s all about March. It’s about coming back and making sure when that (NCAA Tournament) starts in two weeks you’re ready to go and you’re in a great frame of mind. If you’re going to go through any spells or you’re going to go through any lapses, you do it right now and you learn.”

 

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