Kentucky dispatched of UAB 69-58 on Friday night at Rupp Arena. In this Cats Illustrated postgame feature, our staff offers its first impressions from the Wildcats' victory...

JEFF DRUMMOND:

This one had the feel of a nice, warm plate of Thanksgiving leftovers. UAB hit enough shots to keep this from being a blowout, but Kentucky was never truly threatened. John Calipari was intent on continuing to build the confidence of big men E.J. Montgomery and Nick Richards, asking his guards to post the ball early and often. The frontcourt tandem responded with 32 points and 17 points between them. That's another nice step forward for those guys. Richards is starting to become a consistent force on the low block, approaching a double-double each time he takes the floor. Earlier this week, Calipari asked his team to pass the ball with more purpose, and they responded with 19 assists on 26 buckets tonight, led by 12 dimes from Ashton Hagans.

JUSTIN ROWLAND:

Kentucky played very well in the first half. That was the best we've seen EJ Montgomery and Nick Richards play together as Wildcats. I'm fully on board with Richards having turned the corner and Ashton Hagans has been very good all year with the exception of the Evansville game, so he seems to be at another level as well. I like that the team was less reluctant to shoot the three-ball in the first half. I don't think UK sustained its first-half level of play in the second half but overall this is a team that has taken a step forward from where they were two weeks ago. The frontcourt survived and thrived in the first game without Nate Sestina.

TRAVIS GRAF:

Ashton Hagans did a fantastic job of running the show tonight, tying a career-high in assists and boasting a smooth 6:1 assist to turnover ratio. EJ Montgomery had one of his better games as a ‘Cat and hopefully started to turn the corner tonight. If you told me Maxey only scored seven points, I’d have thought that Kentucky would’ve been in trouble. Instead, he let the game come to him and didn’t force anything. He was just missing shots that he’s mostly made this season. Johnny Juzang’s shot started to fall a bit tonight and it’ll be interesting to see if he builds on that moving forward. I love the way he hustles every play, even when his shot doesn’t fall. It’s a testament to Nick Richards’ growth that he had a “quiet” game and still ended up with 16 and 9. It’s still quite the work in progress, but Kentucky’s offense is improving game to game and the spacing is a little better, especially with the 3-guard lineup.

DAVID SISK:

I felt Kentucky ran hot and cold tonight. They looked impressive during certain segments of the game then looked like they lost focus on others. Nick Richards & E.J. Montgomery were tough inside. Ashton Hagans had 12 assists. I think there are certain offensive sets with certain lineups that work best. I understand Calipari is tinkering right now so certain things they do with certain players don’t work as well. The first half transition game looked good. Defensively they got lost in the backscreen action at times, they got beaten off the drive too much, and they didn’t have high hands on shooters. There was both good and bad tonight, but one can see the improvements they have made.