Reporters already wear the hat of a quasi detective, but the postgame locker room Tuesday night had the feeling of an investigate mystery.

The only difference between a real investigation scene and the relaxed Kentucky locker room is these reporters were trying to find out more about the “The Breakfast Club” that John Calipari mentioned a couple of days ago, a group of four or five players who have been waking early in the morning to eat and lift weights together as a sort of team bonding exercise over the holiday break.

In terms of the seriousness of the questions, think of Tuesday’s “who did it” as a game of “Clue.” The weapon was weights, the motive was to bond and the mastermind was Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

While the media couldn’t come to a collective agreement as to who the four or five players are that are participating in the club – Coach Cal declined to tell the media – the one consensus is that Kidd-Gilchrist started the workouts.

“We just want to get better,” Kidd-Gilchrist said after the game. “(It adds) a lot of chemistry still and we’re just having a good time. It was Coach (that brought it up) and we just wanted to do it, so we did.”

Kidd-Gilchrist said he was reluctant to lead at first because he didn’t want to intrude on the veterans, but leading comes natural for the emotional forward. Although he’s just a freshman, Coach Cal has no problems with a first-year player leading.

“It all develops within your team,” Calipari said. “It develops with performance and effort. You can’t be sitting in the ice tub yelling at guys to work harder. He’s out there spending the extra time and it’s neat to see.”

Calipari said leadership is about dragging other people with you up the ladder of success, similar to what John Wall and Brandon Knight did on the their way to the NBA.

“(Kidd-Gilchrist) will drag the intensity of this club because it is embarrassing if you don’t play with the intensity this guy has out there because it really shows,” Caliapri said. “It raises the intensity in practice and there will be guys mad, ‘Michael, you’re trying to kiss butt.’ No, I’m just  trying to be the best player I can be.”

Coach Cal said getting up early and putting in extra work isn’t for everybody, but neither is being a basketball superstar.

“If you’re cutting corners and say the most important part of your life is getting 14 hours of sleep, OK, that’s fine, but success isn’t the most important part of your life,” Calipari said. “Getting two days worth of sleep in one day is.”

Learning from the sidelines

The Kentucky media relations department marched out an interesting trio Wednesday for pre-Loyola media interviews: Jon Hood, Sam Malone and Ryan Harrow. It was interesting because the former two are injured and the latter is ineligible this season because of transfer rules.

Nonetheless, the sidelined trio presented an opportunity to find out what they’re learning from the bench.

“It’s helping me a lot,” Harrow said. “I’m learning a lot of stuff from Coach Cal and learning how to run the system and what he wants. I think it’s going to be a big plus for me next year, knowing what he wants already.”

Watching from the sidelines has been particularly hard for Harrow because he’s healthy and talented. He was considered a top-20 player in his class before playing his freshman year at North Carolina State.

“It’s real difficult for me,” Harrow said. “I’ve had my ups and downs, wanting to play and just being out here not being able to. It’s been hard for me. I call my mom and talk to her and it helps me out a lot, talking to her and the coaches. My time is going to come so I’m trying to cheer them on and learn.”

Junior Jon Hood is fourth months into the recovery process from a torn ACL.

Hood, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament in a pickup game over the summer, is four months separated from his surgery but is as uncertain as ever as to when he’ll return to the court. He’s been an active member of the team despite the injury, often times helping out with practice.

“When that time comes, I’ll go up and I’ll talk to Coach and we’ll talk about it, but to this point we haven’t, so I’m at no liberty to say if I am (returning this year) or not,” Hood said.

Since February seems to be the earliest he could return, a redshirt season is a very strong possibility.

“All my focus is on getting back and giving these guys insight on how to win and how to run the offense,” Hood said. “That’s all I’m thinking now. Come SEC Tournament, I don’t know. Late February is a short time period to get my conditioning back up. The jump shot will be there because I’ll get to start shooting sometime next week.”

Meanwhile, freshman walk-on Sam Malone is just beginning his time on the sidelines after tearing the ACL in his left knee in the Chattanooga game, the fourth knee injury of his career.

Malone was in good spirits Wednesday and joked that the cadaver from whom he got the tissue from to repair his previous knee injury wasn’t very athletic.

“My role on this team hasn’t changed,” Malone said. “I came here to be a great teammate and that’s what I’m going to continue to do. Thank god it was me and not someone else that plays a lot. I’m just going to continue being a great teammate. If having a bad knee is my biggest problem then I’m doing alright for myself.”

Having been through three previous knee surgeries, Malone said he was psychologically prepared.

“I’m doing alright,” he said. “I’ve been through it before. I know what to expect. I’m not nervous going into it. My main goal is just to get my health back to where it was before because for the first time I really felt healthy and like I was doing well.”

Malone is walking around without a limp but will wait to have surgery for a few weeks until the swelling subsides. He doesn’t remember exactly how the injury happened.

“I haven’t watched the play because I don’t want to go back to that,” Malone said. “It was just a quick thing and I actually kind of blacked out for a second because it was really a sharp pain that only lasted a couple of seconds and then I could just really feel it being unstable.

“I thought, how is the team going to win without me now?”

Breaking for the holidays

So many of Coach Cal’s teams develop during the holiday break because of emphasis on extra practices and development that many people lose sight of the fact that Calipari lets his players go home for a few days for the holidays.

The players will be allowed to leave immediately after Thursday’s getaway game (1 p.m. on FSS) against Loyola (Md.) and won’t return until the day after Christmas.

“I hope when they look back they look at their time at Christmas with their own family, being able to see friends and stop in and see relatives, not that they were tortured over Christmas while everyone else was enjoying stuff and they were tortured to play basketball,” Coach Cal said. “Basketball is important and I know it’s important at this school and this program but it shouldn’t come before their families. I’ve always felt that way. Every team I have coached has had a Christmas break.”

Even Calipari, Mr. 24/7, plans to take a couple of days off.

“The good news is my two daughters will be in town with my son and wife,” Calipari said. “I’m trying to get my dad to pop in. We’ll spend a couple days together, we may even go somewhere for a day and come back. I’ll be with the family so it will be nice.”

Jones could miss second straight game

Sophomore forward Terrence Jones could miss his second straight game with a dislocated left pinky finger. Jones, who suffered the injury over the weekend in the game against Chattanooga, did not practice Wednesday.

“He wants to play tomorrow but I may not let him,” Calipari said.

Jones, a preseason All-American, is averaging 12.4 points and 6.2 rebounds.