NCAA Basketball: 5 biggest takeaways from 2019 Champions Classic

4) Tyrese Maxey might be Kentucky’s go-to scorer

Kentucky has talent every season, but it’s almost always new freshmen talent and it takes some time to find out who will actually fill what role. Remember, Tyler Herro came off the bench for most of the non-conference schedule last year before becoming UK’s most vital perimeter player.

John Calipari may have found something similar this year in Tyrese Maxey, who scored 26 points off the bench for the Wildcats. He was incredibly aggressive attacking the basket with his speed, showcased a reliable perimeter jumper, and played both with and without the ball.

I tend to shy away from proclaiming someone a star after what they show in the Champions Classic, and Quentin Grimes’ 21-point performance for Kansas a year ago is exactly the reason why.

That said, Maxey was on a different level than the rest of his teammates were, emerging as the alpha throughout the course of the game. His teammates started to look for him more and more as the game went on, which led to him playing more point guard in the second half than he did in the first half. Their trust in him showed when they gave him the ball to hit that dagger three with a minute left.

There are questions about Kentucky’s frontcourt that remain – Nick Richards and EJ Montgomery still can’t be on the court together for extended stretches – but they have at least appeared to have answered this question.