REPORT CARD: UK-Vanderbilt

Ashton Hagans

C

Once again Hagans stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, four rebounds, six assists and two steals. It was the other numbers that need to improve: Five turnovers, four fouls. UK was +8 in Hagans' 33 minutes and he's always a valuable player but you take the good and the bad together.

Immanuel Quickley

C

Quickley has reached the point in his Kentucky career where he can make valuable contributions even if he doesn't shoot well. After his torrid four-game pace a couple of weeks ago, during which he was 14/21 from three, he is 16/50 in UK's last four games. Quickley was 3/13 from the field but 5/5 from the line. He played a team-high 36 minutes.

Tyrese Maxey

B-

It was really two completely different games for Maxey, who scored a number of Kentucky's points at the end of the contest while the Wildcats were starting to pull away. Those will linger in a lot of folks' memory, but for the first 30 minutes or so he didn't have much success at all. Maxey had 17 points (5/10 FG, 2/3 3-pt), four rebounds, two assists, and three turnovers. If you're going to play well, it's best to play well in crunch time.

Johnny Juzang

C

Juzang got 14 minutes and was 1/4 from the field with two points and three rebounds and a block. He played under control and within himself. It was another quality performance from Juzang but he has not yet made the leap from serviceable to the kind of player opposing teams have to worry about.

Keion Brooks

D

He didn't do much of note. Brooks has had his moments in recent weeks but this wasn't one of them. He was 0/2 from the field and had two rebounds and a block in 11 minutes. But John Calipari only played Brooks three minutes after intermission.

Nate Sestina

C

Sestina is what he is defensively and he had a layup blocked in transition after a great pass by Hagans. Sestina was 2/5 from the field in 21 minutes. He did have a block, a steal, and two assists, playing as hard as anyone on the court.

E.J. Montgomery

B

Montgomery scored nine points on an efficient 4/5 from the field and had four rebounds. He was average defensively. When Richards was out of the game, Montgomery wasn't good enough to help Kentucky dominate like it should have. But his overall production was helpful.

Nick Richards

B+

When Richards was on the court he was his usual dominant self. Vanderbilt couldn't handle him in the second half. He threw down dunks, he grabbed seemingly uncontested rebounds, and at times he seemed to will Kentucky to victory. UK's +16 when he was in the game was two times the next best number for any Kentucky player. Richards had 15 points (7/11 FG) and 11 rebounds in only 22 minutes. But one of the reasons Vanderbilt made this close is because of two silly fouls early in the game, and those were on Richards.