Kentucky Basketball pulls away for win that should have been much easier

Keion Brooks and Kellan Grady smooth contributions pay dividends

Some night we don’t quite know what we will get from Keion Brooks Jr. and Kellan Grady. When it’s nights like the one against Albany we’ll take it.

Grady may have the smoothest knockdown shot you will see. The biggest problem is we don’t often see it enough. He tends to camp in corners and his teammates lose sight of him failing to get the ball to the often wide-open Davidson transfer.

Once he rattles a 3-pointer home it normally unleashes a steady rain of shots. What we saw Monday was something totally different and that was a slash toward the paint and a dish to Brooks for the slam.

Grady netted 14 points knocking down 3 of 5 three-pointers, two rebounds, and an assist.

Brooks can no doubt fly with acrobatic leaps, contortion leans through the lane, and some nice mid-range shots fueling him to 17 points, claim 8 rebounds, and reject two Great Dane shots.

Calipari was asked after the game if this was the kind of game he wanted where he didn’t take any threes.

"“Just got to fight more. Just got to fight more, but he’s coming. Look, he’s got to be a 15, 16 point and an eight-rebound guy for us in a real physical game. Then you’ve got to be confident defensively. If you’re guarding a guy — this is what I just told him. If you are guarding a guy and you’re going like this or your hands are down because you’re afraid he’s going to beat you on the bounce, how are you going to be confident offensively? If you’re getting driven by, shoved, pushed, dunked, laid on, you cannot be confident offensively. You’re going to turn it over. You’re going to miss some shots you shouldn’t miss.”"

Turn this duo loose along with Washington and Wheeler and things can quickly heat up.