When someone handed Marquis Teague the box score at the beginning of the year, his eyes would immediately dart to the right side of the paper for the scoring column. Now, when Teague gets a box score in hand, he’s looking straight for his assists.

Click!

That sound you just heard is a pretty good indication the light bulb inside the head of the freshman point guard has turned on. Over the last three weeks, Teague has started to evolve into the next great John Calipari point guard everyone projected him to be at the beginning of the year.

If you’re looking for a reason as to why Kentucky has shifted into another gear, Calipari says a lot of it has to do with Teague grasping his role. He’s understanding that less – as in shots – is sometimes more, and he’s realizing it all just in time for the homestretch of the regular season.

“You can’t really (complain) with how Marquis has been playing,” senior guard Darius Miller said. “He’s been doing a real good job of running the team, being our floor general and getting everybody where they need to be.”

Teague, a 6-foot-2 freshman from Indianapolis, posted his first career double-double last game against Florida, scoring 12 points and dishing out a career-high 10 assists.

Over the last five games, Teague is averaging 5.6 assists and 2.0 turnovers, taking no more than seven shots in a game. Sure, his scoring numbers are down during that stretch, dipping to a 6.6 average in those five games, but Kentucky has gotten better as Teague has taken better control of the team.

The freshman said his confidence, which was wavering at the beginning of the season when he struggled with turnovers, has been restored.

“My confidence is getting back to where it used to be,” Teague said. “I’m just getting a lot more comfortable running the offense, taking open shots and finding people.”

For all the comparisons Teague gets to his Kentucky predecessors, John Wall and Brandon Knight, he owns a better assist-to-turnover ratio (1.8) through the first 10 games of the league schedule than Wall (1.3) and Knight (1.0) did in their first 10.

Wall and Knight scored a lot more than Teague, but that was out of necessity. With more options around Teague, Coach Cal wants him to find the open man and distribute the ball.

He’s doing exactly that as he grasps the speed of the game, and he’s now fifth among UK’s all-time assist leaders with 114 dimes.

“I’m picking and choosing when to go 100 and then when to slow it down,” Teague said. “Sometimes you’ve got to push it to get a layup and sometimes you’ve got to slow it down and set the offense up and set shooters.”

Teague’s learning curve will face a serious test on Saturday in Nashville, Tenn., for Kentucky’s (24-1, 10-Southeastern Conference) primetime matchup at Vanderbilt (9 p.m. ET on ESPN). Not only will the crowd be hostile, Teague will finally undergo his Memorial Gymnasium baptism.

The behind-the-basket benches – Vanderbilt is the only arena in college basketball that doesn’t have the benches on the sidelines – presents a particularly challenging situation for any point guard. For a freshman, it’s a nightmare waiting to happen.

Freshman guard Marquis Teague is averaging 9.7 points and a team-leading 4.6 assists on the season. (photo by Britney McIntosh, UK Athletics)

Teague will be on an island of his own for a half with his back turned to his coach. Without Calipari within shouting distance, it will be up to Teague to run the offense under difficult circumstances.

“This is a great challenge for Marquis Teague and I think he’ll be fine,” Calipari said. “This will be one where you give him a couple of play calls and this is all you’re going to run. This next set, run one or the other. He’ll be fine.”

Sophomore forward Terrence Jones said Coach Cal gave them five or six plays to decide between for a couple plays last year.

“(Coach) just told me to get the call from him when I’m at the free-throw line when the other team is shooting free throws to make it easier on myself,” Teague said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever heard of that. I heard about it plenty of times from different people. They said it’s a crazy place to play in.”

Teague said he’s more comfortable now with calling plays on his own than he was earlier in the season and said he and Coach Cal split the play calls 50-50.

“Sometimes I come down and see what I see and sometimes he tells me what to call,” Teague said. “If I have to make my own call, that’d be fine.”

Kentucky has won just three of its last 10 games at Memorial Gymnasium, including an 81-77 loss last season. With ESPN College GameDay in town and Vanderbilt in desperate need of a conference win – the Commodores are 3.5 games behind the Wildcats in the SEC – Vanderbilt will be looking for its fifth straight victory over a top-ranked team at Memorial since 1987.

How much of that success has to do with the setup is up for debate, but Calipari said it will have no effect on Saturday’s game.

“Whether we win or lose will be based on how we play versus how they play,” Coach Cal said. “It’s not going to be anything about a building or fans. We play on the road. We’ve had tough environments. We’ve won in tough environments. We’ve lost in tough environments. It’s how your team plays and how their team plays.”

And a lot of that, based on how the team has fared under his guidance the last few weeks, will be up to how Teague plays.

Another road challenge

Vanderbilt (17-7, 6-3 SEC) hasn’t quite lived up to its top-10 preseason billing, but that hasn’t changed Calipari’s perception of the talent that resides in Nashville.

On more than one occasion this season, Coach Cal has mentioned the Commodores’ ability to blow teams out of the water if they hit shots. And Vanderbilt tends to hit a lot of big shots.

The ‘Dores are eighth in the nation in 3-point field goals a game (8.9) and 18th in 3-point field-goal percentage (39.3). UK shut down the nation’s top 3-point shooting team on Tuesday, but Calipari said Vanderbilt is a completely different team.

“Every one of these teams gives us something different,” Calipari said. “Now we’ve never played Vandy with this team, so just like Tennessee is totally different than Vandy, who is totally different than Florida, who is totally different than Mississippi State … it’s important for us to see how we respond. Every experience is new and learning.”

Vanderbilt is led by junior guard John Jenkins, who is averaging an SEC-best 19.7 points per game. One of the nation’s best 3-point shooters over the last few years, Jenkins has developed into one of the best all-around players in the country.

“What if Jenkins goes 12 for 12 from the 3?” Calipari said. “It’s been a nice start to our season. When’s the next game? And you could be all over him and he’ll still do that.”

But what scares Calipari maybe more than anything is his partner on the perimeter, senior Jeffery Taylor. While Jenkins may be one of the school’s most prolific 3-point shooters, Taylor has actually been better this year, hitting 47.8 of his 3-point attempts.

“He’s consistently makings 3s, which he didn’t before,” Calipari said. “Now, you’ve got to go out there and play him, which makes him better off the bounce.”

Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings all but confirmed Thursday that his team would take its chances from the 3-point line than go at the nation’s top shot blocker, Anthony Davis.

“It’s such an equalizer and can be such a difference-maker,” Stallings said. “Obviously Davis changes the game around the goal and he makes you think about other options.”

Calipari expects the ‘Dores to slow down the pace and said Vanderbilt big man Festus Ezeli creates problems in the paint. But if last year’s game in Lexington is any indication, when the Cats decided to go one on one with Ezeli in the paint to shut down the perimeter play of Vandy, Ezeli may be the lesser of two evils.

And that’s a big maybe.

“(Jarnell) Stokes could not handle, physically, Ezeli,” Calipari said. “Now you think about what I’m saying. We couldn’t handle Stokes physically. It is a tough matchup for us.”

Cal celebrates 53rd (or is it 51st?) birthday

According to Coach Cal’s biographical information, the head coach turned 53. According to him, he’s a couple years younger.

“Two years got vacated so I’m 51,” Calipari quipped.

As the media laughed at one his best lines of the year, Calipari got serious for a minute and reflected a little bit on his nearly three years at Kentucky.

“I’m enjoying myself,” Coach Cal said. “I’m enjoying our players. I enjoy our fans. I think we, as a program, have connected as well as you can and have been as transparent as we can for everybody because everybody wants to be a part of it. They want in. They want knowledge of what’s happening. I love seeing us practice and all those kinds of things. This isn’t one of those programs where you can go in the office and hide.”

So what did Coach Cal do on his birthday? Outside of a few extra phone calls and lunch at the office, it was a pretty normal day of practice before hitting the road for Nashville. He did get breakfast in bed, a Calipari family tradition.

“Oatmeal,” he said. “You have to do it presidential – coffee, two Splenda and cream and a napkin.”