Kentucky basketball: Cats dominate Kentucky State despite injuries, grief

Reeves off the bench, Fredrick pick and rolls are all bright spots

It wasn’t unexpected but we wanted to really see just what this team has after going through some solid Calipari practices and the season opener against Howard on Monday on the horizon.

There is little doubt that Antonio Reeves, a transfer from Illinois State, will need to be on the floor in key moments for this team.

He netted 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting (5-for-10 on threes, and 4 of 5 from the free throw line) off the bench. Calipari loves the work ethic of Reeves and no doubt will lean on him in key moments and it doesn’t matter if its off the bench.

"“I like it. Here’s the thing here. You know, there’s an ego to starting. ‘I’m a starter.’ I’ve said this before: Who finishes the game’s probably more important than who starts the games. Because you can start a guy just so he feels good about himself and sub him three minutes in. But that last part of the game you’re playing the guys that have, that have the grittiness to them, that mental toughness to them to play to win the game. And it’s not playing just to play basketball.”"

Toppin is going to be the beast this season. He simply added 21 points, and sharpshooters CJ Fredrick and Chris Livingston were all dropping 14 points each from all over the floor. You have to love the pick-and-roll with Fredrick that is going to keep lots of defenses on their heels.

Even Calipari was stunned by Fredrick.

"“Like I didn’t know C.J. was that good in pick-and-rolls. Anybody else know? Then you watch the game and you go, My, he’s pretty good in pick-and-rolls.”"

Wallace tallied a dozen points and Ware just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. Ware has seriously bulked up and threw down a massive slam. Pounding with Tshiebwe in practice has greatly improved his game.

Kentucky opens the regular season on Monday, November 7 hosting Howard at 6:30 PM EST on the SEC Network.