The three biggest takeaways from Saturday’s win over GT

Keion Brooks is the piece we need

Keion Brooks, welcome to Lexington young man. Finally, we are beginning to see the emergence of a freshman forward on this year’s roster. The 6 foot 7 freshman hit double-digit scoring for a second straight game. Saturday, he scored 10 points on 26 minutes played.

This takeaway is much more important than a box score analysis. Keion Brooks is in the long line of Kentucky freshman with a lightbulb moment, in response to the preaching of Coach Cal.

What did Brooks do? He responded to the three-word sermon of Cal, “Fight and Finish.”

“It doesn’t get any simpler than that,” Brooks said, “He doesn’t care about you making or missing shots. As long as you’re out there fighting, trying to finish the game, he’s going to put you out there because he knows he can rely on you to get rebounds and come up with loose balls, stuff like that. So I just try to fight every possession.”

Brooks responded, scoring 15 points in 16 minutes against Fairleigh Dickinson. Yesterday he added to this, as his 10 points on seven shots came as a zone-buster in the middle of Georgia Tech’s 1-3-1 zone defense that gave the Wildcats problems.

Against FDU and GT, Brooks played 42 minutes, scored 25 points (on18 shot attempts), took nine rebounds, blocked two shots and had two steals.

Keion Brooks is much more than a versatile piece. He is a weapon.

Now we just need his friends Khalil Whitney and EJ Montgomery to follow his lead.