The Kentucky Wildcats ran past the Bucknell Bison on Saturday afternoon in Lexington by a score of 100-72.
The Cats got off to a pretty fast start, but they slowed down as sloppy play best summarized Kentucky’s first half. The good news is that a sloppy first half still led to a 47-31 lead.
After the break, Kentucky locked in and pulled away. It wasn’t quite as crisp as the first game, but the Cats just find a way to score at will, even when it doesn’t look pretty.
Next up, the Cats will take on the Duke Blue Devils on Tuesday night in the Champions Classic in Atlanta.
Here are three things to know from Kentucky’s win over Bucknell.
The ball doesn’t stop
Kentucky is an outside shooting team—-that’s a well-known fact—-but they’re not just that.
I watched just that earlier this afternoon in Louisville. The Cardinals are a quantity-over-quality 3-point shooting team. I mistakenly thought Mark Pope’s was the same, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The Cats run an actual offense.
Kentucky shares the ball. Kentucky runs sets. Kentucky feeds the post. They run back door cuts, out-of-bounds plays, etc. etc. You get the point. And the best part is just watching these guys share the ball.
Even better is that Kentucky has more than one legitimate veteran point guard to run the offense. Lamont Butler had a so-so performance in this one, but Kerr Kriisa came off the bench to record a game-high 12 assists, also tying his career-high in what’s now his fifth season of college basketball.
The Cats are an elite passing team, and the ball never stops. One after another, extra pass after extra pass. Kentucky takes 3s when they’re open, not because they’re forcing it. And that’s a product of the passing and the ball never sitting still.
Brea doesn’t miss
Koby Brea doesn’t miss. This dude is like Reed Sheppard from outside the arc.
Brea was second in the country in 3-point shooting last season (behind Sheppard), and he’s lived up to the hype. You’re legitimately surprised when the ball doesn’t go in. He finished 6/8 from deep in this one.
And he isn’t just a shooter. He’s a creator and isn’t afraid to take the ball to the basket. He really reminds me of a first-year Antonio Reeves, but I don’t think we’ll see the same highs and lows.
Consistency will be key with Brea.
Williams must clean up turnovers
Amari Williams is really good, and he’s a fun player who finished this one with another double-double, but he clearly has a turnover problem.
Williams is a beast down low, a monster rebounder, and a good instinctual passer. However, he isn’t perfect, and his biggest flaw is he tries to do too much. He’s a good passer, but he forces the issue too much and it’s become a turnover problem.
That’s a big issue that Kentucky needs to fix. You can’t have your center leading the team in turnovers, especially when it’s five like he had in this one.
Thankfully, Williams did improve on the free throws, hitting 3/5 attempts after going 2/6 in Game 1.
The next one is the big one, where we’ll finally see what this team is really made of.
Go Cats!
