Cats Illustrated's updated Basketball Stock Report reflects the latest action and trends specifically from Kentucky's home win against Mississippi State on Tuesday night.
| 📈 | E.J. Montgomery. It has not been all forward progress for Montgomery in his sophomore season. His per game averages are still modest, his consistency still lacking until proven otherwise. But his 12-point, 8-rebound, 3-steal game against MSU was impressive, even more so because so much of it was concentrated in the first half when he looked nearly unstoppable for a brief stretch. |
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📉 | Three-point shooting. Kentucky was 1/10 from three-point range against Mississippi State. After starting the Auburn game 5/10 from long range the 'Cats went cold, shooting 1/6 from deep in the second half. So UK is 2/16 on three-pointers in its last 30 minutes of basketball. |
📈 | Free throw differential. Against Auburn the 'Cats were -13 points at the foul line compared to the Tigers. That was a big deviation from the season norm, as UK typically beats out its opponent by a nice margin there. On Tuesday, Kentucky was a superb 31/36 (81.1-percent) from the line compared to 17/21 for Mississippi State. That helped make up for only hitting one three-pointer. |
📈 | Frontcourt play. For most of the year it has been the Nick Richards show when it comes to UK's frontline. The 'Cats have one of the nation's best big men and then a lot of inconsistency and limited value. But on Tuesday, with Montgomery playing well, with Richards pouring in 25 in the second half, and with Nate Sestina giving the 'Cats six points (more than usual lately), UK was able to match MSU inside. The Bulldogs did outrebound Kentucky by three but the bigs got their share of boards. |
📈 | Transition game. UK has always, this year and the last decade, been efficient in transition. They just haven't always played fast. In Tuesday's win Kentucky had 25 transition points even though MSU only turned the ball over 10 times. |
📈 | Turnovers. Speaking of turnovers, Kentucky only had eight of them. And nobody had more than two. |
