John Calipari says Terrence Clarke is still "a few games away" from making his return

Kentucky's offense could use a dose of shotmaking, but it might be a while before Terrence Clarke can be the one to provide it. During his radio call-in show on Wednesday night, Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari said that he believes Clarke is still "a few games away" before he can return to the lineup. The freshman guard has been nursing an ankle injury that he initially hurt against North Carolina on Dec. 19 and then re-aggravated one week later against Lousiville on Dec. 26. Clarke has not played a game since UK lost to the Cardinals. While the Kentucky defense has continued to show signs of improvement, the offense has not. The absence of Clarke, a 6-foot-7 athletic freak who was averaging 10.7 points per game before the injury, has limited what the 'Cats can do on offense. "He [Terrence Clarke] can break you down and go get by you and go get a shot. He's a bigger guard, we can post him, we can get some easy baskets. But he's gotta be healthy," Coach Calipari said on Wednesday. "He can't do what he did against Louisville--be at 70 percent and think it's okay. So now, we're trying to get him healthy. I still think he's a few games away from being able to do that. And for us, we gotta say again, here's who we have, how do we win? How do we put ourselves in the best position?" Back on Jan. 18, Calipari said that he thought Clarke would be out the next "week to 10 days", which has now been extended to "a few" more games. Following the win over LSU, the head coach did divulge that Clarke is starting to run again, although he was not yet participating in practice. Kentucky is set to face No. 5 Texas this Saturday before taking on No. 12 Missouri and No. 18 Tennessee in the following two outings. It's beginning to sound like Clarke could be sidelined for all three of them.