5 Rushed Reactions: Kentucky vs Mississippi State

1. PJ Washington was a BEAST

PJ Washington had a very productive game. Washington was effective in several different aspects of the game, most noticeably scoring and rebounding. Mississippi State couldn’t stop him on the offensive end for most of the night. Washington was able to post on the block and score. He was able to catch the ball at the elbow and high post, and knock down jumpers. Washington was also able to catch the ball at the elbow and take his man off the dribble for buckets.

Many Kentucky fans have come to appreciate and expect alley-oop dunks on ball-screen plays. Washington was the recipient of these lobs against Mississippi State. It’ll be interesting to see if John Calipari notes that Washington was the focal part of the game plan, or if PJ just decided to be a beast. I felt confident every time Washington had the ball in his hands tonight. Tonight’s game is huge for Washington’s mentality and success moving forward.

2. Kevin Knox being Kevin Knox

I plan to write more about this later, but Kevin Knox is a shooter. His natural game is perimeter shooting, and then shooting off the dribble. At the collegiate level, he’s not nearly as effective forcing dribble penetration into the paint. Tonight was refreshing to watch for Knox; he was able to catch and shoot in rhythm on the perimeter.

As Mississippi State was forced to rush closeouts on him, he was able to knock down jumpers off the shot-fake pull-up. Big Blue Nation could tell that Knox wasn’t overthinking the game. He wasn’t focused on Calipari yelling at him to drive, to get to the rim, etc. He took the open jumpers when he had them, and wide open drives when he had the lane. If UK gets Knox playing this comfortably down the stretch, BBN is really going to enjoy this team.