On one hand, John Calipari is fortunate that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is his most aggressive player.

On the other, it’s rather unfortunate.

Kidd-Gilchrist eventually finished with a team-high 18 points and six rebounds, but foul trouble limited his minutes to 26. He picked up two first-half fouls for the third consecutive game in UK’s 86-64 win over Lamar on Wednesday.

It’s happened because without Terrence Jones, Kidd-Gilchrist has become the only player not named Anthony Davis that Calipari said is willing to rebound.

That’s also why Calipari has violated his own policy of not playing players in the first half that have two fouls: Because he has too. Otherwise, who will rebound, play defense and do all of the other Kidd-Gilchristian things that only Kidd-Gilchrist does?

“I think I’m being overly aggressive,” Kidd-Gilchrist said. “I just have to calm down. That’s the way it goes. (Calipari) said he needs me out there on the court. I think that’s why he puts me back in the game in those situations. It’s not easy.”

Calipari admitted the first foul called on Kidd-Gilchrist on Wednesday was “shaky.” But with one foul already, the second was an easy call.

Even with Jones back from a dislocated finger after missing two games, he wasn’t at top speed Wednesday when he shared minutes with Kidd-Gilchrist.

His second-half performance showed what he can do when he’s not playing with foul worries lingering in his mind. At one point he scored seven straight points for the Cats, four of which were on field goals scored while being fouled. He also had another trademark two-handed slam in the second half, adding to the quickly growing list of such moves.

But in the first half, Lamar was able to hang in the game in large part because of its offensive rebounding. The Cardinals had 10 offensive boards before halftime, and five were while Kidd-Gilchrist was on the bench.

No matter which way you look at it, Kidd-Gilchrist’s aggression—and his collective teammates’ lack thereof—affects the Cats.

“I told (Kidd-Gilchrist), normally when a guy gets two fouls, I will not play him the rest of the half,” Calipari said. “The problem with this team is, you need his touchness so bad, that I ended up shoving him back in there. He’s just learning.”