Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 95-72 exhibition victory over Kentucky Wesleyan on Friday night at Rupp Arena.
1. Keion Brooks and TyTy Washington were pre-Halloween treats
If you want to put this in a Halloween theme, then junior forward Keion Brooks and freshman guard TyTy Washington treated the announced crowd of 17,133 to the best offensive showings of the night. At least by the home team.
Each player scored 18 points. Brooks made seven of his 12 shots, including a head-turning four of six from behind the three-point line. He entered the game with a career three-point percentage south of 30. In his sort of first game, Washington was seven of nine from the floor, including a perfect three of three from beyond the arc. “TyTy scored 18 points on nine shots,” an impressed UK head coach John Calipari said afterward.
Brooks got the night off to a good start, draining a three-pointer from the left corner on the way to scoring eight of Kentucky’s first 10 points. Washington hit his stride in the second half, hitting three jumpers, including two triples, in a little over three minutes.
Calipari said that Brooks is just more skilled than he was his first two seasons in a UK uniform. And as for Washington, he started alongside Georgia transfer and point guard Sahvir Wheeler. The two appeared to work well together, which was no surprise to Wheeler. He said afterward that people were mistaken thinking the two point guards could no co-exist. “We compliment each other,” Wheeler said.
2. Kentucky’s interior defense got tricked
Without center Oscar Tshiebwe on the floor, Kentucky had all kinds of trouble defending the post. And thanks to a nagging hip problem, Tshiebwe played just 17 minutes. That was at least one reason why Kentucky Wesleyan’s Jomel Boyd scored a game-high 29 points. The 6-foot-6 junior from Anderson, Ind., was 12 of 17 from the floor. Boyd did step out to bury a three, but most of his points came right around the basket.
“If you want to play on this team, play good interior defense,” said Calipari, pinpointing an early problem. “We haven’t really zeroed in on that, but we’ve got to figure that out.”
After shooting 36.4 percent in the first half, KWC shot a much-better 56.3 percent the second half. The Panthers were 14 of 23 from inside the three-point line. As you might expect, Kentucky scored 42 points in the paint, but you might not have expected Kentucky Wesleyan to score 28 points in the paint.
The Cats also pressed full-court for much of the night, but Cal said that had more to do with his desire to speed up the game than a long-term plan. Maybe Kentucky will be a full-court pressing team this season, maybe it won’t. The coach said that was still something to be determined.
3. Kentucky is deep, but it could be deeper
Thank goodness, Calipari has a deep bench. With the Nov. 9 opener against Duke drawing closer, the Cats are dealing with some injury problems. Neither Jacob Toppin (shoulder) or CJ Fredrick (leg) played on Friday. Toppin could be back soon, but Fredrick has yet to start fully practicing, according to Calipari. And then there’s that hip that is giving Tshiebwe problems.
Ten Cats saw the floor on Friday night. Washington logged the most at 24:59. Dontaie Allen got the least clock at 10:20. But most were around the 17- to 23-minute range as Calipari said he needs to know the identity of his players and his team.
The coach does have enough depth that if one player isn’t hitting from the perimeter, there appears to be a Plan B or even C. Considered an excellent three-point shooter, Davidson transfer Kellan Grady was just one of four from behind the stripe. We know returnee Davion Mintz can make threes. He made just one on Friday, missing four others. “He’s better than that in a normal game,” Calipari said.
Overall, Kentucky was 11 of 29 from the three-point territory for 37.9. Cal said he was good with that percentage on a night when his team took 29 threes. Freshman Bryce Hopkins missed all four of his three-point attempts. That brought down the average. Chalk it up to freshman jitters.
Asked what he learned from this game, Brooks said, “We’re not as good as we think we are.”
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