The Cats Illustrated staff offers its first impressions of Kentucky's annual Blue-White intrasquad scrimmage on Friday night at Rupp Arena. The White squad pulled out an 81-80 victory with junior center Nick Richards leading the charge with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
JUSTIN ROWLAND:
I feel like this is a necessary disclaimer: We shouldn't read too much into this game. But I'll do it anyway. Immanuel Quickley was the most improved returning player on the floor, Nate Sestina's range is very encouraging, but I'm not sure Kentucky is going to have much of a post game this season. The biggest concern tonight was E.J. Montgomery appears to be pretty much the player he was last year. Maybe that's a function of the kind of game this was. This will be a guard-oriented team so the backcourt needs to play well consistently.
TRAVIS GRAF:
The storyline of this scrimmage is Immanuel Quickley. A couple of weeks ago, John Calipari said that the sophomore guard has had a “PJ Washington” type of transformation over the summer. Well, that was on display tonight. If he’s playing on that level on a nightly basis, you’re looking at a guy who will be impossible to keep off of the floor. He was active on both ends of the court tonight while creating for himself and for others. Nate Sestina is another guy who looked great in the scrimmage. Coming into the game, I wanted to see how he did in a live-game setting against athleticism. He didn’t disappoint, hitting 4 of 8 from the outside. To summarize the rest of the roster, Whitney and Montgomery struggled mightily and I don’t think either would start if the first game was today. Nick Richards has a nice game, but the stats were a little misleading. Juzang wasn’t hitting shots but you see the potential. Hagans ran the team at a high level, accounting for a 6:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Maxey will be the team’s leading scorer but will have to be elite if this team wants to make noise in March.
JEFF DRUMMOND:
As one would expect this early in the season, it was a mixed-bag showing for the Cats. I liked what we saw from Ashton Hagans, Immanuel Quickley, and Nick Richards in coming back for another season at UK. Each looked more aggressive and confident. I was hoping to see that from E.J. Montgomery as well, but he never seemed to get into a flow. You have to like what Nate Sestina (team-high 22 points, 4-of-8 from the 3-point arc) brings to the table. I was a little surprised the two squads combined for 41 3-point attempts with the new, deeper arc, but it appears Calipari feels really good about the shooting ability on this roster. The Cats need guys like Tyrese Maxey and Johnny Juzang, potentially two of their better shooters, to hit more than they did tonight, and the overall numbers will look better.
