The expected, the unexpected, and the to be expected

by: Cody Daniel11/05/13@CodyDanielKSR

As No. 1 ranked Kentucky entered its final exhibition match against Montevallo, there were clearly some expectations surrounding this Cat's team. Let’s take a look at what we expected from this Cat's team, what we didn’t expect, and what we should expect in the not so distant future. What we expected

I think everybody including Montevallo expected a Kentucky win last night.

Andrew Harrison did not play for the 2^nd consecutive time, but then again why would Cal risk further aggravating his knee especially with such an in-formidable opponent in town.

This was only the 2^nd game this young inexperienced team has played together. There was surely going to be mistakes and turnovers, which this team will learn from quickly under Coach Cal.

We all expected the man-child who is Julius Randle to completely dominate which he did with 21 points on 9/13 shooting along with 11 boards. Everything looked so easy to him as he racked up yet another double-double.

Cauley-Stein really gets a kick out of blocking peoples' shots so he decided he would just do it six times against Montevallo. With a clear edge in the paint for Cauley-Stein, that performance was to be expected.

What we didn’t expect

Yes everybody expected Kentucky to win, but who would have thought Montevallo would be hanging around late in the 2^nd half. I sure didn’t.

If I told you a Division-2 player would put up 30 points on the Nation's top ranked team, you would probably say I am crazy but it happened. Who would have expected Troran Brown to go off on Kentucky the way he did? If it makes it any easier to swallow, Brown is a D2 Preseason All-American.

After a nonchalant performance from Alex Poythress against Transy, who would have expected Poythress to come off the bench with energy and enthusiasm? Poythress slammed in a few jams that the crowd seemed to love and crashed the basket with intensity. He was a completely different player from the 1^st exhibition game finishing with 10 points and four rebounds.

Marcus Lee and Derek Willis are two big time recruits with big time talent so it was unexpected to see them see the court for a combined 12 minutes of action (Lee-3, Willis-9) in an exhibition game.

What we should expect

As we witnessed in the first two games for UK, teams lay everything they have on the court. Kentucky should expect this with the huge target and expectations placed on them before the season. Kentucky will get top-notch competition from even less glorified opposition. Be ready Cats.

The Cats finished the night with 16 turnovers compared to just 10 for Montevallo. This will be an unacceptable statistic to Coach Cal so expect this team to begin playing much more disciplined very soon.

The Cats seem to play down to their competitions level at times and Aaron Harrison agrees, “I think we’ll play big the bigger the games are. I don’t know if I can say we’re ready. We will be.” Expect that to change with the regular season starting and the seriousness of the season kicking in.

When this team plays to their potential, look out. When everybody seems to give it 100%, it seems they put up 10 points a minute and can’t be scored on.

Expect Lee and Willis to see some more minutes in some games. These two athletes are way too good to not see the floor more often. It won’t be major minutes but surely more than 12 minutes between the two of them.

(Photos by Chet White, UK Athletics) @CodyDanielKSR