Two weeks into team practices, head coach John Calipari likes what he’s seeing from his young Kentucky basketball team.

Speaking after a one-hour Friday workout at the Joe Craft Center – with 570 tents surround the exterior of the facility, mind you – Coach Cal said it’s “get-after-it time” now that the players are starting to get a feel for one another.

“Today they were better,” Calipari said. “The young kids are playing better. Terrence Jones was a man today – a man, tipping in balls, driving in and being physical. Our guards are playing better. They’re figuring it out, and our young kids are doing it. We have a chance. I’m having fun coaching.”

After practice was over, Calipari expressed his pleasure to his team but reminded the players that what they’re doing is only half of the normal practices. Once Big Blue Madness rolls around on Oct. 14 and Calipari is allotted a full 20 hours a week with his kids – right now the team can only go through skill instruction for two hours a week – Calipari said he’ll increase the practice times from one hour to two hours and 30 minutes.

At that point the team will begin to install its defense, which it hasn’t touched in two weeks of practices. So far Calipari has worked them exclusively through the Dribble Drive Motion Offense and how to get shots out of it.

Coach Cal held practice after spending the morning in the Piscataway, N.J., for the Brayden Carr Foundation’s first coaches’ clinic. The foundation was established by longtime Rutgers men’s basketball staff member Jim Carr and his wife Natalie, whose 2-year-old son, Brayden, died in May after a long illness.

John Calipari signed autographs and took pictures with Big Blue Madness campers Friday evening for about 30 minutes.

According to a story on myCentralJersey.com, more than 500 coaches attended the clinic at University’s Louis Brown Athletic Center. The clinic, which featured a stable of the game’s most recognizable coaches, including Kansas’ Bill Self, Rutgers’ Mike Rice, and former NBA coaches Jeff Van Gundy and Hubie Brown, raised $75,000 for the foundation.

“Brayden passed away unexpectedly and from that grief, from that tragedy, the Carr family has said, ‘Let’s do something positive,’ which I think is unique and special and my hat’s off (to them),” Calipari said. “It was a great clinic today. I don’t know if I was up to what the other coaches were, but I hope I left a message for the coaches that were there.”

As if his day wasn’t long enough already, Coach Cal went outside to visit with Big Blue Madness campers after he found out they set a new record with 570 tents.

He planned for a “quick pass” as the weather started to dive – campers will have to brave temperatures in the 40s Saturday morning – but when word got out that Coach Cal was out and about, he was mobbed for autographs. This writer isn’t great at estimating, but he signed at least 300 to 400 things of memorabilia and took another 100 pictures before having to leave.

Big Blue Madness campers will receive their tickets Saturday at 7 a.m.