St. Louis notebook

Julius Randle is averaging a double-double (15.1 points, 10.7 rebounds) going into Sunday’s NCAA Midwest Region game against Wichita State.

He’s scored 529 points and shot 50.4 percent from the field and 70.2 percent at the foul line. He’s also played more minutes (1,075) than any other Kentucky interior player.

Most defenses are set to stop him — as Wichita State indicated it would also do — and now even coach John Calipari admits he has not done a good job coaching him.

“He is a guy that is still trying to find who he is as a player. And I was trying to help him and didn’t do a very good job until hopefully now, trying to get him to figure out exactly how he needs to play to have success both for himself and his team,” Calipari said. “But when you look at the numbers and what he’s done, our strength of schedule was number two in the country, which means he played against the best.

“And he’s out there with a bunch of other freshmen. It is hard to help each other when you are trying to figure out how I need to play. But they never stopped. He’s a great kid. He is really — he’s gotten better. He’s gotten better and he’s been fine.”

Shoe repair: Kentucky freshman James Young had to make an unexpected equipment change early in Friday’s win over Kansas State.

“My shoe had a blowout a little bit, so I just had to put on my other shoes at a timeout,” Young said. “I think I was just stepping pretty hard and it twisted and just popped out a little bit.”

That brought out the colorful shoes he wore in the SEC Tournament title game against Florida — and slipped in as he was driving for a potential game-wining shot.

“I went from the Jordans to the Nikes I wore against Florida,” Young said. “It was all good.”

He already had a different look — again — with his hair.

“I am trying to get my dreads going. It is going to take a while, but I’ve started,” Young said.

Seeing yellow: Often UK has a big edge in fans at tourney time like it did at the SEC tourney. However, it was Wichita State that had far more fans than UK — or Kansas that plays Stanford in the first game today — on Friday night.

“There was a lot of yellow out there, but our fans will be heard,” freshman Dakari Johnson said.

He also “heard” what Wichita State players said Thursday about wanting a chance to play UK.

“A lot of guys can talk as much as they want to, but we are going to come in with the same mindset. We are going to listen to the coaches and do what Coach wants us to do and if we do that, we will come out with a win,” Johnson said. “I think we match up with them well. They are a great defensive team, but at the same time we are, too. I think we are peaking at the right time. I think it also helps that we now have a NCAA game under our belt and have got the nerves out.”

Shocker backer: Count CBS-TV analyst Charles Barkley as a Wichita State fan, but not because he has anything against Kentucky. In fact, because he thinks UK is “not an eight seed,” that’s partially why he hopes unbeaten Wichita State beats UK.

“I think they are a terrific team. I am rooting for them to stick it to the selection committee. They obviously have the toughest road and the selection committee stuck it to them,” Barkley said on CBS Saturday. “I hate strength of schedule because it is not their fault.”