Kentucky Basketball: 3 takeaways from Wildcats dominating win over Robert Morris
1. UK’s biggest potential impact transfer finally came into his own against RMU
When our preseason SEC roundtable was published a month ago, one of the questions posed was which transfer we thought would have the biggest impact on their respective team; I took Davidson transfer Kellan Grady, who had an illustrious four-year career with the Wildcats and was set to bring leadership and proven talent to a Kentucky squad that desperately needed it.
In 22 games with Davidson last year, Grady recorded double-digits on 19 occasions – which included a 32-point output in the Atlantic 10 Tournament against George Mason. In just his first game in a Kentucky uniform, however, Grady provided a quiet nine points, all off of three-pointers, in the Wildcats’ eight-point loss to Duke in the Champions Classic.
That is not out of the ordinary, especially considering that nine-point total is better than any of the three single-digit performances Grady recorded during his senior season at Davidson – but for his first game at Kentucky, it was a bit of a worrisome sign, particularly compared to fellow transfers Oscar Tshiebwe and Sahvir Wheeler both recording double-doubles in the loss.
Fast forward three days later, however, and Grady seems to have already found his footing, having tallied a game-high 19 points (3-5 2PT, 4-6 3PT, 1-1 FT) against Robert Morris, leading a sextuplet of double-digit scorers. In addition, Grady’s talent as a pickpocket was on full display, as he snagged a game-high three steals in the win.
The fact that Kentucky had six scorers reach double-figures is, in itself, a victory for a team that faced so many challenges last season – but the fact that Grady finally broke through may be the biggest win for the Wildcats moving forward. With Wheeler and Tshiebwe already thriving, Grady was the last key transfer who needed to make an impact – and now, the expectations of him being Kentucky’s biggest impact transfer are not that far off.