John Calipari wants Alex Poythress to play with greater focus for longer stretches of games.

“Play the whole game the way you’re playing in spurts,” Calipari said. “Just do it.”

Poythress has looked nearly unstoppable at times.

“I see where he’s coming from,” Poythress said. “Sometimes I do have mental lapses. I’ve just got to decrease those mental lapses and I should be fine. (During such lapses) I’m just thinking more instead of reacting.”

Michael Carter-Williams shot just 3-of-17 from the floor as Temple focused its entire defense on turning the 6-foot-6 point guard into a scorer.

“They were denying the wings and not letting me kick it out,’’ Carter-Williams said. “They were trying to force me to finish and that’s what I tried to do.’’

Carter-Williams finished with 13 points for the Orange, who struggled to find space outside and consequently shot just 2-for-12 from beyond the arc.

“They didn’t try to come off to help,’’ coach Jim Boeheim said. “He’s got to finish those. He missed some good looks. He got some good opportunities.’’

Carter-Williams won’t be surprised if more teams dare him to score.

“I think a lot of teams are going to start doing that,’’ the sophomore guard said. “They see that I pass the ball. I’ve got to get used to it.’’

Michigan ranks fifth nationally in overall field goal percentage at 51.1 percent.

"I don't like to compare teams because all the other guys get mad at me," Wolverines coach John Beilein said Thursday. "But this is a good shooting team, as good as some other teams we've had. The ones that were really good could shoot."

Michigan’s overall shooting is boosted by Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. having career years.

Burke is shooting 8 percent higher than last year (52 percent) and Hardaway Jr. 5 percent higher than ever before (47 percent).

"I will say I never coached against a team who can shoot the ball at such a high rate as Michigan does," Eastern Michigan coach Rob Murphy said after the Wolverines’ 93-54 win over the Eagles on Thursday. "Every position except for the five man (center) can really shoot the basketball."

Illinois ranks fourth in three-point attempts per game (25.9) through 12 games while employing coach John Groce’s philosophy to take “the first available shot that we can make.”

 “There aren’t too many bad shots in his offense,” said forward Tyler Griffey, who’s shooting 43 percent from three-point range. “He knows we can shoot. He just really instills the confidence.”

Illinois is shooting 38.6 percent beyond the arc as a team, which ranks 39th nationally.

Groce said his team, which sits 12-0 on the season and ranks No. 10 nationally, needs to expand its scoring to keep defenses honest.

“We’re starting to drive it a little more to complement our perimeter shooting, and that’s important moving forward,” he said. “We have to have that, but we are a good shooting team and we’re not going to shy away from that.”

Ben McLemore is shooting 68.8 percent over his last four games on catch-and-shoot jumpers, a 39.6 percent increase over his first six games of the season.

McLemore has connected on 11 of his last 16 catch-and-shoot attempts, with the vast majority being uncontested.

In his first six games, McLemore was guarded on two-thirds of his catch-and-shoot jumpers and often misfired, making just 7-of-24 attempts.

McLemore is a projected lottery pick on some boards.

Kentucky gains possession an impressive 59 percent of the time when Nerlens Noel blocks a shot.

Noel ranks fifth in the country in blocks per game (3.9) and 17th in block percentage (12.6).

Trey Burke has put his imprint on Michigan by making practices more competitive and thereby increasing the intensity level of his teammates.

"If I lose in something, I'm mad," Burke said. "I feel like the guy that beat me has an advantage over me, and I've got to beat him.”

Before speaking to the media on Wednesday, Burke was defeated by freshman Caris LeVert in a one-on-one drill.

"I'm trying to get back out there and play him right now,” said Burke, who would later report that he paid LeVert back with a 15-13 win.

Wolverines coach John Beilein said Burke’s competitiveness trickles down to even the most minute detail of practice.

"We were just scrimmaging, we had three different scrimmages," Beilein said. "Three different scoreboards ... and each one of them, he's the same. Competitive. He's the one telling our guys 'we're going to win this one, we're going to win this one.' That's his approach.

"It doesn't have anything to do with who we're playing, it's how he plays. There's personal challenges involved in some of those games, and you may want to let a sleeping dog lie a little bit -- the better the challenge, the more he responds individually."

Bill Self expects Perry Ellis to become a bigger part of Kansas’ rotation in the coming weeks.

“Perry’s minutes are gonna continue to go up if he just stays aggressive,” Self said, “and (he) keeps trying to get out of his comfort zone to be aggressive.”

Self would like Ellis to get to a point where he’s playing with a free mind — and not thinking as much.

“Most freshmen think too much,” Self said. “But he cares, he’s conscientious. The best athletes are the ones that have no memory, the ones that don’t think.

“I don’t know if that’s exactly how you raise your child. To (not) think, and don’t have a memory, and ‘I can’t remember anything bad I ever did.’ But if you can raise your child where they remember that, and somehow when they get between the lines they automatically forget, those are the best guys.”

Shabazz Muhammad is down to 222 pounds after debuting at around 235 pounds against Georgetown.

"It definitely impacted my athletic ability, and everyone could see that I wasn't that athletic," Muhammad said of the extra weight. "Today in practice, I was just so explosive. I could feel it."

Muhammad is adjusting to the responsibility of monitoring what he eats and has switched to a diet of mostly salads and water.

"It's completely new," Muhammad said. "Ever since I've been on my own in college, you can eat whatever you want. I think that's just a maturity thing. ... It's really taken me a long way."

Muhammad was averaging 16 points and five rebounds per game, despite his limited athleticism.

"You can see it in him compared to three weeks ago," Bruins coach Ben Howland said. "He's in better physical condition. You can see his body; he's lost a few pounds."

Dave Rice is going to leave Anthony Bennett at the power forward position this season.

"He'll still play inside," Rice said of Bennett, who previously shuttled back and forth between center and power forward. "I think playing center early this year has helped Anthony and made him a more effective inside player."

Bennett is leading the Runnin’ Rebels in scoring and rebounding, averaging 19.5 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

Khem Birch, a 6-foot-9 center, is set to make his UNLV debut Monday at Texas-El Paso.