5) Ashton Hagans sparking Kentucky‘s season
Kentucky entered Saturday without a quality win and had two losses (Duke, Seton Hall) that raised questions about just how good the Wildcats actually were.
Well, they took their first step towards proving themselves again on Saturday with that win over UNC (which I caught up on afterward, shoutout 2018 technology) thanks to the play of freshman point guard Ashton Hagans, who made his best Tre Jones impression with seven steals and lockdown defense all night against the Tar Heels.
The former Georgia commit, who reclassified to the 2018 class to play for Kentucky, has seen his role increase of late and moved into the starting lineup, playing at least 20 minutes in each of UK’s last five games.
Offense has never been a problem for this Kentucky team – Keldon Johnson has emerged as a legitimate star and Reid Travis continues to prove himself as Calipari’s go-to frontcourt player – but they needed to improve defensively.
Hagans’ defense at the point has given them the spark they needed on that end of the floor and may have turned around Kentucky’s season in the process.