LEXINGTON — When Kentucky coach John Calipari joined former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski as a guest on his weekly radio show in January, Calipari joked that Coach K copied his style in recruiting one-and-done players.

Well, now is the perfect time for Calipari to copy a move Krzyzewski made in 2015.

UK could sure use a zone — full time.

Full Stop.

Saturday’s 111-102 win over Arkansas was more proof of just how problematic Kentucky’s defense is. Calipari showed too that he knows playing zone might be the solution, he did it against the Razorbacks for a few possessions.

"I had to go to a zone, folks," Calipari said. "I don't ever play zone. We went to a zone just to stop them from just running through us."

The Razorbacks ranked 13th in the Southeastern Conference in adjusted offense, according to KenPom.com. They shot 57% from the field in the first half and scored 48 points — their highest total for a first half during league play. Their 102 total was also the most they’d scored in league play.

Calipari just hasn't bought all in on zone because he fears the Cats will have rebounding issues. UK is just an average rebounding team now out of its man-to-man defense.

He also lamented that the Razorbacks made a 3-pointer on the last possession of the half against his zone. Here's the news flash: a zone isn't going to stop opponents from scoring. Arkansas made seven 3s in the game, and the other six weren't against zone.

Chances are, with more exposure and experience playing zone, the Cats would only get better at it if they stuck to it in closing out the regular season against Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

UK guard D.J. Wagner said the Cats have practiced their zone slightly more now than they did at the beginning of the season.

"We might go for a session and might go all zone and play against each other," Wagner said. "All zone, even on offense, just so you know how to play against it and we know how to play with it."

Coach K had a similar problem during the 2014-15 season.

Duke was led by a talented freshmen trio of Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow and Tyus Jones and ranked third in adjusted offense nationally, per KenPom.com.

But they couldn’t stop anybody. They had a particular problem with stopping ball penetration. When the Blue Devils lost back-to-back games in January 2015 to N.C. State and Miami, Krzyzewski had seen enough.

Duke went zone and played it well enough that its defense was no longer a liability. Better yet, the Blue Devils finished 11th nationally in defensive efficiency in helping Coach K capture his fifth national title.

The Wildcats are more gifted offensively than that Duke team.  

But Calipari hasn’t thought much of playing zone beyond just toying with it in practice.

"The good thing with us playing zone, we have no idea what we're doing, so how can they (opponents) know what we're doing," Calipari said. "We don't even know what we're doing. We don't even know our slides, where we're supposed to go and all of a sudden that'll confuse (opponents)."

Entering Saturday's game, the Cats had played zone for just 24 possessions — 1.2% of all its defensive possessions — this season, according to Synergy stats.

In that very limited sample size, UK held its opponents to .875 points per possession — which is labeled as very good on Synergy — compared to .902 points per possession in man defense, which ranks in the 35th percentile nationally and is considered average.

Kentucky has enough length on its roster that it could be very effective playing zone. It has big guards and big wings. Then there's the three seven-footers it can roll out at any given time in Ugonna Oneynso, Aaron Bradshaw and Zvonimir Ivisic to anchor the middle as a rim protector.

The Cats wouldn't likely be torched for 48 points in the paint like Arkansas scored on Saturday if they played more zone.

"It definitely will help us if we're playing teams that aren't really shooting teams and they keep scoring on us," UK guard Rob Dillingham said. "Because we pack the paint and we can rebound with our seven footers and our guards."

Entering the final week of the regular season, there’s far too much evidence that Kentucky isn’t capable of consistently playing the kind of man-to-man defense it needs to reach a Final Four, much less cut down the nets on the final Monday of the season.

And it’s not feasible to expect the Cats can stay perfect offensively to win six straight games in the NCAA Tournament.

There will come a time when the shots aren’t falling. And, unlike Calipari has mentioned on occasion this season, it won’t matter that the Cats have multiple players who can erupt from behind the arc.

It’ll come down to how many stops Kentucky can get.

A zone defense will get many more of those than the Cats can in playing man. And if that means it helps them go farther in the NCAA Tournament, who cares if that makes Calipari a copy cat?

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball: John Calipari should go zone with this UK defense