Kentucky Wildcats vs Pikeville Highlights (Video)
By Jacob Rude
The Kentucky Wildcats come into the season as the top ranked team by nearly every outlet and poll published. Few teams have their depth or talent, and certainly not both.
The Wildcats had their first exhibition game of the season against recent NAIA Men’s Basketball champions Pikeville.
Kentucky won in a rout, 116-68. Freshman Karl Towns led the way with 22 points and 6 rebounds, while fellow freshmen Devin Booker had 16 points on 6-9 field goal shooting. Alex Poythress had 12 and Willie Cauley-Stein finished with 10 points, the only two other Kentucky players in double figures.
The most notable thing from this video has to be Kentucky’s willingness to push the ball and run. While not anti-fastbreak, we haven’t seen a Calipari coached team push the ball in transition like this one. However, this could also be the result of playing a far inferior opponent in Pikeville.
With the talent and depth Calipari has, using a fast-tempo offense could be a great move. We already know Calipari is thinking about using a two five-man lineups, similar to a line change in hockey. Could he be preparing an uptempo, fast-paced offense?