Two days before Kentucky was set to take on Michigan in the Wildcats’ first regular-season basketball game in Europe, the team found itself in a small gym in the basement of a London workout center.
Toward the end of the Cats’ practice Friday, freshman guard Cason Wallace took the ball from the perimeter, drove the left side toward the basket, and threw down a dunk in traffic so ferocious that it left the backboard rattling from side to side.
John Calipari called the scrimmage to a halt.
A couple of the veterans on the team turned around with smiles on their faces — seemingly on the verge of giggles — before a word came out of the Kentucky coach’s mouth.
They knew what was coming. Wallace had — as Calipari often calls it — told on himself.
“Where’s your energy?!” the UK coach yelled sarcastically. “Where’s your s—?! Why won’t you do that s— in a game?!”