KSR's Takeaways from Kentucky's Win Over Kentucky State

Kentucky men’s basketball closed the book on its preseason Thursday night with a 99-53 victory over the Kentucky State Thorobreds. On Monday, the regular season begins with the home opener in Lexington.

In the meantime, KSR has a list of takeaways from the final tune-up event in Rupp Arena, from breakout games to 3-point flurries. There is another chapter in the Zvonimir Ivisic mystery, too.

Read on for more from Kentucky-Kentucky State…

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Justin Edwards’ Coming Out Party

Justin Edwards fans had to wait for Kentucky’s second exhibition to see Edwards’ breakout game in Rupp Arena. Against Georgetown, the Wildcats’ top-rated freshman had a cold-shooting debut, missing seven of 10 shots from the field for nine points.

Against Kentucky State, Edwards was a force from the start with 10 of Kentucky’s first 12 points in the game. He and DJ Wagner outscored Kentucky State by themselves with a combined 22 points in the first half. Edwards finished the game with 17 on an efficient 8-of-12 output, nine rebounds and his first made three-pointer.

Afterward, John Calipari revealed that he challenged Edwards to drive the ball in the game, and Edwards responded by attacking from the jump.

— Drew Franklin

Tre Mitchell has been Kentucky’s best player so far

This doesn’t even feel like a hot take.

Fifth-year veteran forward Tre Mitchell has been lights out starting in Canada over the summer and continuing through the team’s first two exhibitions. Against Kentucky State, Mitchell posted the Wildcats’ only double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. He also chipped in four assists, three steals, and two blocks in 28 minutes of action. To kick off the second half, Mitchell drained three straight three-pointers that pushed Kentucky ahead by 50 points.

As Kentucky’s lone big man, Mitchell has been everything and more that fans expected he would be.

— Zack Geoghegan

DJ Wagner Got Off To A Hot Start Too

Like Edwards, DJ Wagner needed a big game after a quiet night against Georgetown. And like Edwards, Wagner got to it right away, scoring a team-high 12 points by halftime.

In the second half, Wagner became a facilitator, adding four assists to his stat line, but not another point. He played 10 minutes after intermission and went to the bench for the night with his team up by a wide margin.

Wagner’s first-half slam was a nice taste of what’s ahead this season:

#SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/sATq9nzpky

— KSR (@KSRonX) November 2, 2023

— Drew Franklin

Wagner and Dillingham, Together

It seems like most of the questions about Kentucky’s backcourt are coming from outside media, while Kentucky media feels pretty confident about DJ Wagner and Rob Dillingham. I fall into the latter group.

Not only do I think Dillingham and Wagner will be very good for Kentucky, I believe that we’re going to see them playing together early and often. Both players are just too good to keep off the court, and their best lineups are likely with both of them together.

Tonight, Dillingham added eight points and six assists to Wagner’s big night in the backcourt.

— Jacob Polacheck

Follow @KSRonX, KSR’s official Twitter/X account, for all the latest Kentucky Wildcats news, videos, and content.

The Assist-to-Turnovers ratio you love to see

You have to take the opponent into account (we love you, the Kentucky State fighting JTs), but Kentucky played a pretty flawless game tonight. At halftime, the Cats had 14 assists to zero turnovers. As the second half went on, the play inevitably got sloppier, but Kentucky still finished with 25 assists to just six turnovers.

On a stellar night, DJ Wagner led the way with seven assists, followed by Rob Dillingham with six, and Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves with four each. Love to see it.

— Tyler Thompson

Sort of a Bradshaw/Ugo injury timeline?

We know that Ugonna Onyenso is behind Aaron Bradshaw timeline-wise in when he’ll return to the court, but in his postgame conversation with Tom Leach, John Calipari put a tentative window on it. Calipari said he believes Bradshaw will miss the first week or two of the season and Ugo is two weeks behind that.

At UK’s Pro Day on October 11, Calipari gave a 5-7 week timeline for the seven-footers to return but has since backtracked. When the two will return to the court remains to be seen, but per Cal, Ugo is a fortnight behind Bradshaw.

— Tyler Thompson

Big Z has food poisoning

During his prerecorded pregame radio spot, head coach John Calipari told listeners that 7-foot-2 Croatian big man Zvonimir Ivisic would go through the layup lines ahead of the game. When that segment finally aired roughly 30 minutes prior to tipoff, Ivisic was not on the floor. In fact, he wasn’t seen anywhere in the building and was not on the bench at any point during the game.

After the game wrapped up, Calipari came out in the postgame presser and said that Ivisic had come down with food poisoning, which he supposedly picked up in the last 24 hours. Calipari added that Big Z had been going through practice as normal in the previous days, but “buzzard’s luck” caught him again as the sickness took over.

All that being said, there was no clarification as to when Big Z will cleared by the NCAA or not. The wait continues.

— Zack Geoghegan

Kentucky State Is A New Team (And Couldn’t Zone)

Respectfully, Kentucky State didn’t present much of a challenge for the Wildcats, so it is hard to form any grand opinions based on Thursday night’s basketball. Additionally, Kentucky State wasn’t allowed to play zone, according to John Calipari on the pregame show, so the Thorobreds played with restrictions, too. Also, it was the first public appearance for a team with nine new players.

John Calipari says on pregame radio that he asked Kentucky State to not play zone tonight.

Said he hasn't had time to focus on that aspect yet with this 2023-24 team.

Sounds like UK's Friday practice will have a big focus on zone offense and zone defense.

— Cameron Drummond (@cdrummond97) November 2, 2023

Still, it was a fun night in Rupp Arena before everything gets real in four days.

— Drew Franklin

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