Rowland: 5 things to watch for in Kentucky's first basketball exhibition
Is it really college basketball season?
Kentucky's first exhibition basketball game takes place on Friday night against Thomas More.
There won't be a line. There's not much of a question about which team will emerge victorious. That's not what UK-Thomas More is about. This is one of three exhibition games for Kentucky's basketball program before the start of the 2017-18 season.
Here are five things to watch for when the Cats take the court on Friday night.
Are the Cats really as unpolished as John Calipari has been suggesting?
Calipari would have everyone believe that his team is far from ready for real basketball action. There's probably a lot of truth to what he's saying given the unprecedented youth and lack of senior leadership on this Kentucky basketball team. Jarred Vanderbilt and Jemarl Baker won't be playing. Vanderbilt was not wearing a boot on Thursday and Baker will undergo further evaluation on Friday. The rotation will go deeper than it would against a better opponent in a regular season game, but a solid share of this team's legitimate depth will not be available on Friday night.
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Thomas More probably isn't prepared to exploit any preseason defensive deficiencies the Cats are going through with such a young team. We'll probably see a lot of blocked shots, steals and highlight plays when Kentucky doesn't have the ball. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to look for the team's communication on defense, the ball rotations, and everything else we haven't seen so far.
How are the shots distributed?
If you polled the Big Blue Nation, most Kentucky fans would probably expect freshman Kevin Knox to take more shots and score more points than anyone else on the team. But this group should have more balance than some previous Calipari teams in Lexington.
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Just how many shots will Calipari be looking to get Knox? How aggressive will P.J. Washington be in looking for baskets 15-feet and in? How much balance will there be, compared to the past two Kentucky teams, which relied heavily on scoring explosions from Jamal Murray and Malik Monk?
The ongoing battle for the starting point guard job.
Quade Green and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be battling for minutes in the early part of the season and maybe well into their freshman campaigns. They will both probably be a significant part of Kentucky's rotation for the entire season. But the two players bring different skill sets and attributes to the table, and this is the time of year when Calipari will be looking to see what he's working with and who works best with certain lineup combinations and attack plans on the floor. Green is more of a traditional point guard who has been compared to Tyler Ulis by Calipari - with some caveats and brake-tapping - while Gilgeous-Alexander has the length to really get after it on defense. And he's impressed since he's arrived in Lexington.
Tempo, tempo, tempo
Last year's Kentucky team was the aberration in the Calipari era when it comes to tempo. Previously, every Calipari team had been a slower-paced team. If they weren't grind it out, halfcourt-dominant teams, they certainly didn't rank ahead of most of the nation's other teams by the tempo metrics.
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Whether this team plays that fast is anyone's guess. History says they probably won't play quite as fast as last year's team. But given the length and athleticism of this bunch, coupled with how far along they probably still have to go to work young players into a halfcourt offense, we'll probably see fireworks and plenty of (sloppy) up and down action.
Spotlight on Wenyen Gabriel.
Kentucky won't have senior leadership to look to in 2017-18. There's no Dominique Hawkins, no Derek Willis, not even an older transfer like Mychal Mulder. What they do have, in terms of experience, is Wenyen Gabriel.
Gabriel has drawn rave reviews from program observers and those privileged to glimpse the Cats in the lead up to this season. His body transformation has been obvious and his focus has apparently been impressive.
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Now he needs to be a leader and to find a place of consistency for a Kentucky team that could use both. He doesn't have to be the Cats' leading scorer, or even one of their three leading scorers. But he's got to be more consistent on defense, relentless on the glass and someone that can be counted out to help direct action and set a tone whenever he's in the game.