By the end, Oakland had won the rebounding battle 40-39.

“That can’t happen,” Reed Sheppard said in the postgame locker room.

How can Kentucky get better on defense?

What can the Wildcats do to turn around this years-long skid of defensive inefficiency?

Calipari has thoughts, and he shared some of those Monday night.

For starters, the UK coach is considering scrapping his typical summer routine and paying more attention to these points of emphasis.

Last summer, the Cats went to Canada for a FIBA exhibition tournament. The summer before that, they hit the Bahamas for four offseason games. Calipari has categorized those trips as more exercises in team-building — getting used to each other, on and off the court — than opportunities to truly evolve in particular aspects of the game.

“What about — in the summers — instead of a Bahamas or a Toronto, we’re really back to where we’re grinding. And we’re working on our physicality. And we’re working on defense. And we’re trying to set a foundation of who we’re gonna be,” Calipari said.

The UK coach said one reason he doesn’t go too hard on his players in the summer is he doesn’t want to have them worn down by the end of the season, which features a tough preseason practice regimen, an 18-game slate in the physically demanding SEC and plenty of nonconference games against difficult opponents.

Calipari implied that the positives of early attention to defense (and physicality) would outweigh the negatives, adding that he also plans to evaluate the program’s weight training and strength and conditioning programs in the run-up to the next season.

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