There have been numerous occasions through Kentucky’s first 12 games when coach John Calipari would sit at the press conference table afterwards and declare, “We lose this game if not for Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.”

Add Thursday’s 87-63 matinee victory over Loyola (Md.) to that list. The 6-7 freshman had 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists to help lift Kentucky past a feisty opponent and into Christmas break with a sparkling 11-1 record.

“I’ll be honest, he’s dragging our team, which is great stuff,” Calipari said. “He’s doing it whether it’s rebounding, scoring, making free throws, making threes when he has to. In transition, if you give it to him ahead of the pack and it’s him and one guy, he’s scoring 99.9 percent of the time or he’s going to get fouled.

“He drags us in practice. He drags us in morning workouts,” Calipari said. “He means so much.”

Calipari has been singing the praises of Kidd-Gilchrist since practice began in October.

“When you look up the definition of ‘warrior’ in the dictionary, there is a picture of Michael,” Calipari said. “He has a tremendous burning desire to win that will drive practice and elevate everyone within the program.

“The biggest thing I want him to add to this team is a sense of urgency in practice, a work ethic in practice, just raise the intensity, the fire, the passion,” Calipari said. “I've never seen him go anything but absolutely all out. So what will happen is he'll either take over practices or guys will try to step up with him and then it becomes a team on fire, an absolute team on fire.”

Calipari sees himself as a teacher of Leadership 101 and Kidd-Gilchrist is the star pupil.

“My job as a coach is to teach all these young people how to lead,” Calipari said. “But as your season goes on, a couple of leaders will stand out amongst that group. It starts with leading and serving. The second part is leading by example, you don’t lead by talking. Then you have to go on the court and perform. They have to look at you with confidence for you to lead.”

Kidd-Gilchrist had all that and more in UK’s win over Loyola. With UK holding a slim 33-31 advantage late in the first half, Kidd-Gilchrist scored six of the Cats’ next 11 points as the lead grew to 44-37. In the second half, UK led by five points before Kidd-Gilchrist scored six of nine points to make it a 10-point lead at 58-48.

“The Gilchrist kid is better than I thought,” admitted Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos. “I was wrong on him. I thought we’d be able to have an advantage on that matchup, but we didn’t.

“He’s not flashy, he just drives the ball,” Patsos continued. “He makes a lot of little plays, drove in, kicked it, got a rebound. Fifteen points, seven rebounds and four assists, he was better than I thought.”

What makes Kidd-Gilchrist’s performance even more remarkable is the fact that his mother, Cindy, was admitted to a New Jersey hospital before the game with an undisclosed illness. The 18-year-old has already endured the shooting death of his father when he was a toddler and the sudden death of his uncle Darrin Kidd to heart failure on the day he signed his letter of intent to play for Kentucky. Michael performed CPR while awaiting paramedics. He later added the Kidd to his last name in honor of his uncle.

“We were trying to figure out if we should send him home this morning early,” Calipari said. “But what she’s going through right now, it’s not so immediate that there were going to be things done today.

“It’s in the early process,” Calipari said. “I hope what we find out is all good, but the Big Blue Nation prayers are strong prayers and I would ask for everyone to say a prayer for his mother and their family.”

Kentucky players were given a three-day Christmas break before returning to prepare for the last two-thirds of its season, which includes Louisville and Southeastern Conference play. It’s a guarantee Kidd-Gilchrist will be leading that charge.

“When we click, when we all come together and we’re all playing aggressive, bouncing and talking and making easy plays, then this stuff gets scary,” Calipari said. “We’re not close that right now. But this thing could get scary.”

