QUICK TAKES: Kentucky 78, Purdue 65
In our regular postgame feature, the Cats Illustrated staff offers its first impressions from Kentucky’s 78-65 win over preseason No. 1 Purdue on Friday night in a sold-out exhibition game at Rupp Arena…
JUSTIN ROWLAND:
Let’s get the necessary disclaimers out of the way early. Don’t read too much into an exhibition game. Purdue has struggled in some other exhibition games, and you know they’re going to say they didn’t prepare for Kentucky; they worked on Purdue. All of that is probably true, and I still expect the Boilermakers to be one of the better teams in college basketball. But it’s a good sign UK’s length impacted the game, so you saw Mark Pope‘s roster-building emphasis paying dividends early. Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno both had standout contributions. They’re very skilled players in their respective roles. Even without Jaland Lowe, without Jayden Quaintance, and with Otega Oweh coming back, you saw the talent, depth, and complementary parts of this Kentucky basketball team. Obviously, now the fan base will be talking about No. 9, but the season is still going to have many ebbs and flows. It does look like Kentucky will be in the conversation.
JEFF DRUMMOND:
Like Justin said above, we have to pump the brakes on how much this means to Kentucky’s season, but it was a fun night at Rupp Arena. Purdue will be one of the elite teams in the country by tournament time — probably a lot sooner than that — and we saw the Wildcats really have their way with a talented, experienced opponent with three All-American level players on its roster and a great coach. I don’t think anyone expected Mark Pope‘s team to look this good, this early, especially with starting point guard Jaland Lowe and potential starting center Jayden Quaintance both out of action. Likewise, I don’t think anyone expected freshmen Jasper Johnson (15 points, 3 assists) and Malachi Moreno (8 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal) to look as comfortable as they did against an elite opponent in their first game. Both are so much more improved from what we saw when they were highly touted prep stars. I don’t know if we’ll ever hear the “platoon” strategy utilized again at UK, but the depth was an overwhelming advantage tonight. Ten Cats played 16 minutes or more, and whenever the starters left the floor, the guys backing them up almost always extended the lead. Sophomore guard Collin Chandler was the best example of that with a team-high +15 tonight in just 15 minutes of action off the bench.