LEXINGTON, Ky. — If told before the season that Kentucky would lose six of its first seven games, freshman Isaiah Jackson would have been incredulous.
"I would have told them they were lying," he said Thursday. "But it is where we are as a team."
Jackson welcomed the start of Southeastern Conference play as something of a vaccine that can resuscitate the UK team.
"I feel that's a fresh start for us," he said. "Like, those are the games that truly, honestly count, in my opinion."
Kentucky opens league play Saturday at Mississippi State, which will be coming off a rousing 83-73 victory over previously undefeated Georgia on Wednesday.
The combination of a proud program's first 1-6 start to a season since 1926-27 and the beginning of league play suggests anything but the same old-same old.
However, assistant coach Joel Justus, who substituted for UK coach John Calipari in the routine teleconference previewing the next game, repeatedly pooh-poohed the suggestion that there was something completely unusual about where Kentucky finds itself.
When asked about boosting player confidence, Justus said that was "what we do every single day here with our young guys every single year. . . .
"Early in a season, whether undefeated or whether you're in a situation like we are right now, we're looking to build up each one of our guys every single day."
Part of that process was Tuesday's scrimmage against Transylvania. Justus said he could not speak of specifics, but he pointed out what Kentucky wanted to gain in the exercise: Continue to foster more competitive zeal on defense and better execution on offense.
"We are talking about having a very clear mental picture of who they are individually," he said. "We are talking about having a very clear mental picture of who we can be as a team.
"And that's not unlike last year or the previous five years I have worked for Coach Cal."
Most glaring to even the casual observer have been too many turnovers and too few shots going in the basket, especially from three-point range.
Jackson said the UK coaches have noted a flaw in the shooting mechanics of some players.
"A lot of guys like to dip before they shoot," he said. "They're telling us (when) you catch it, just let it go."
Echoing Calipari and others, Jackson spoke confidently about Kentucky's shooting accuracy improving in the future.
"That's just repetition," he said. "We work on it every day. That's going to get better as time goes on."
Jackson acknowledged needing to improve his own execution on offense. Watching video of game action made him realize when he was in the wrong position, he said.
"It really messes it up," he said of Kentucky's offensive flow. "It'll be hard for us to score. That's all we've been working on."
As Jackson spoke optimistically of Kentucky's basketball future, so did Justus.
Of a turnaround to the season, he said, "we are close." The goal is playing with a "high motor on both ends of the floor," he said, and to play with a unified purpose.
"Our guys are excited," Justus said. "They're fighting. And their effort is trending in the elite kind of direction that we need it to be."
The beginning of SEC play is more a turning of the metaphorical page than an opportunity to put down one book and pick up another, Jackson suggested.
"It's a fresh start," he said. "We're still going to come out with the same mentality of going out there and trying to get stops and score. It doesn't matter who's in front of us. We're still going to go out there and play. . . .
"Everyone has the mindset of a fresh start. We're going to go out and hoop and do our thing."
