De'aaron Fox – photo by Walter Cornett
If you watched the tonight's annual Blue-White game, then one you're sure to have noticed is this: these Kentucky Wildcats can fly. And I mean fly. If De'Aaron Fox had the ball in his hands, there is a good chance he was blowing by someone with it. The kid has speed to beat anyone he wants, and when he's done torching opponents he has an arsenal of exquisite moves to finish it off.
The great news is that Fox isn't the only player with that talent, Malik Monk was everywhere and anywhere on the court he wanted to be. Like Fox, once Monk is running to the basket he has a bag of tricks up his sleeve to use to finish it off.
And both players showed they could throw down. Fox had a couple of hard dunks to slam, but Monk came out absolutely flying. More than once Malik found an open to take the ball, leap, cock the ball back like a loaded gun, and throw down the hardest dunks of the night.
Speaking of dunks, I have to mention how good Bam Adebayo looked. He seemed to get open under the basket at will, and he either throw an easy dunk or show his finesse with an effortless layup. The only real way to describe him as a player for me is “the elegant beast”.
The trio of Fox-Monk-Adebayo looked amazing tonight playing together for the Blue team, and hopefully that carries over to the regular season.
With that being said, none of them were the leading scorer tonight. That title belongs to Isaiah Briscoe, who wasn't afraid to show that new and improved jump shot tonight. Briscoe attempted 30 field goals making 14 of them shooting a hair below 50%. A good showing for a player seemingly under a lot of pressure to improve this year.
Behind Briscoe in scoring tonight was Fox with 31 points, Monk with 26, and Hawkins who had a great night scoring 22. Bam finished right behind Dominique with 20 points.
To go without mentioning the defensive play as well would be criminal. Multiple players were blocking shots and getting in the way of passes creating turnovers at either end of the court. This team is fast on both sides of the ball mixing that speed with quick strikes and vicious dunks. If these types of performances by the players continue once the regular season starts, it is going to be one fun year for the Wildcats and the Kentucky faithful.
Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter's Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.
