KSR's takeaways from Kentucky's beatdown vs. Minnesota State to wrap up exhibition play
That’s a wrap on Minnesota State, and thus, exhibition play for the Kentucky Wildcats. It wasn’t the well-oiled machine we saw in the opener vs. Kentucky Wesleyan, but Mark Pope‘s squad finally found its footing in the final three quarters of the matchup leading to a 31-point win over the reigning NCAA Division II National Champions.
What do you need to know about the victory and what’s next as we look ahead to the start of the regular season when the games actually start to count?
Kentucky gets exposed — just as Mark Pope hoped
It’s kind of exactly what you wanted, right? Kentucky got off to a sloppy start and held a one-point lead through 10-plus minutes, an opening period consisting of more turnovers than the entire team total vs. KWC (five). Mark Pope wanted to see his team exposed at some point during the exhibition schedule and that’s exactly what happened in the first quarter of the game.
Then the Cats responded exactly as hoped, turning that small lead into a blowout win, finishing with yet another efficient shooting night at 53.6 percent overall and 35.1 percent from three on 69 total shots and 37 attempts from deep. Like the first exhibition, it was a well-rounded effort, as well, with 10 total players scoring for Kentucky including four in double figures.
Things got weird, as Pope described it, with the rotation and lineup shifting. It got clunky and shots weren’t falling because of it. When things settled down, though, the turnaround was glorious.
Amari Williams goes down with a leg injury
A key reason why things got weird and clunky? Kentucky’s starting center hobbling off to the locker room with a leg injury.
Williams played just three minutes before missing the rest of the game, undergoing X-rays and riding the exercise bike ahead of halftime, then sitting on the bench in the second. He was up and moving well, joining his teammates in the huddle, but he was quickly declared out.
The good news? Those X-rays came back clean and the outlook is promising.
“It’s key for us, it’s key to everything we do. We run a lot through our bigs,” Pope said of Williams’ impact. “It’s really important. He’s got a really unique skillset. I think he’s doing fine. Initial X-rays came back solid, but he’ll have more imaging tomorrow. We’re hopeful he’ll be back soon.”
… but Brandon Garrison steps up in his place
Next man up mentality, right? As Williams went down, his backup stepped up in a major way, Garrison going for 12 points on 6-9 shooting with four rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal in 19 minutes.
The Oklahoma State transfer was terrific, finishing with touch around the basket with polished post moves and coming up with defensive stops in the all-around effort. His biggest highlight was the game’s biggest highlight, throwing down the poster of all posters to send a poor Minnesota State defender into last week.
Later on, he hit a left-handed jump hook on one end, followed by a steal on the other with a ridiculous coast-to-coast effort that came an inch shy of perfection. His layup was just short, but his heart was in the right place as a certified dog. More where that came from, please.
Kerr Kriisa finally makes his debut
No more negotiating for a pay raise, time to ball. Pope joked that Kriisa’s tweaked hamstring was actually an NIL holdout, the reason he missed the Blue-White Preseason Event and the Kentucky Wesleyan exhibition game. This time around, the West Virginia transfer went through a full pregame shootaround and warmup and decided he was good to go — headband and all.
Kriisa knocked down one three on four attempts in his debut while adding six assists and four rebounds in 16 minutes, a solid debut for someone getting his first live action as a Wildcat. His energy was infectious as he controlled the pace of the game and made a real impact as a facilitator, dishing out dime after dime, highlighted by his no-look assist to Andrew Carr for the open slam.
Pope recruited Kriisa for six years before he finally decided to play for the first-year Kentucky coach in Lexington. And the payoff was well worth the wait for good vibes alone.
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Jaxson Robinson is a certified sniper
When the Wildcats desperately needed a bucket to get rolling, the BYU transfer showed up. Then he kept making shots, one by one, all the way through the final buzzer. I’m not quite sure when he’s going to cool down, if ever. Robinson just knows how to light it up in the most effortless way imaginable.
He started with 15 first-half points with five made threes to spark a quick 18-0 run and spread the lead to 20 at the break. From there, he kept firing away en route to 24 points and eight made threes while adding a team-high six rebounds, three assists and two steals in 24 minutes. Hand in his face, wide open, anywhere and everywhere on the perimeter, the fifth-year senior is going to launch shots as the stabilizing force on the floor.
Pope has referred to Robinson as his translator on the court, the one guy who has played for him and knows his coaching tendencies and language better than anyone. He’s the ultimate safety net when things go south, which is exactly why you sweat out a midnight draft deadline praying for his commitment. He’s that important, an Antonio Reeves-level scoring threat you can rely on to do the heavy lifting day in and day out as everyone else figures themselves out.
Robinson is now up to 43 points on 15-24 shooting in his first two appearances as a Wildcat. Is that good? I think that’s good.
Just one second-half turnover
More on those early turnovers and what came after them. Five in the first nine minutes was undoubtedly ugly, Andrew Carr chalking that up to playing rushed and getting out of sync with one another.
What happened from that point forward? Well, the Wildcats would turn the ball over just one more time in the back half of the first, followed by a ridiculous second-half display of just one individual turnover — they were technically called for two, the other being the game-ending shot-clock violation with 0.5 seconds left.
Robinson led the way with three while no one else had more than one — Lamont Butler, Koby Brea and Ansley Almonor the culprits there, another credited to the team for an early shot-clock violation for seven total. Kentucky was careless early and cleaned things up the rest of the way.
28 assists on 37 makes
Ball movement, ball movement, ball movement. How about Otega Oweh joining Kriisa atop the leaderboard with six assists and no turnovers? Butler wasn’t far behind with five while Robinson, Carr and Collin Chandler added three apiece, as well.
That was clearly a talking point after the game, UK assistant coach Cody Fueger singling out the assist total after the win — those two things clearly going hand in hand.
Solid team win for the Cats. Now it’s time for the real stuff.
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