KSR's takeaways from Kentucky's GLOBL Jam gold medal win over Team Canada

Four games, four wins, one gold medal for Kentucky men’s basketball.

In the 2023 GLOBL Jam Tournament gold medal contest on Sunday night between Kentucky and Team Canada — a rematch of Thursday’s outing, which UK won with ease, 93-69 — the end result wasn’t far off from the first. The Wildcats were forced to fight in the opening half after Canada put up a competitive battle, but a third-quarter run from Kentucky blew the game wide open and ultimately resulted in an 89-72 win. As a result, UK will leave Toronto, Canada, and head back to Lexington with some new hardware and a perfect 4-0 record.

KSR’s Jack Pilgrim (our usual takeaways host) is still in the air while he travels back to the States, so I’ll be stepping in to cover for him. Spoiler: my takes are mostly positive. Let’s dive right into my takeaways from the final game of an incredibly fun run up north for the Wildcats.

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— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) July 17, 2023

Kentucky goes undefeated in Toronto

Outside of some moments against Team Germany in the opening game, it never felt like Kentucky was ever truly challenged in this event. Sure, there were moments when the opposing team made a run to cut into the Wildcats’ lead, but that only happened after UK had taken firm control of the momentum. Some mental lapses would be expected from a team this young. For that to only surface a handful of times across four games is a testament to how controlled this group played.

Credit to head coach John Calipari for keeping this team locked in. Not many would have blamed the ‘Cats for coming out slow this weekend after spending Friday swimming around at Drake’s pool. That was never the case though. UK was locked in from the opening tip on Wednesday to the final buzzer on Sunday. Having two veterans, Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell, to help keep Kentucky’s eyes on the prize surely helped, as well.

Kentucky won all four games by an average of 12.8 points. The opener saw a late comeback attempt from Team Germany but ultimately resulted in an eight-point win. The first matchup against Canada was a blowout from start to finish. Team Africa, like Germany, put up a fight in the second half but still lost by double-digits. Canada had no chance in the gold medal rematch.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Kentucky’s championship run was the offensive efficiency and togetherness that the ‘Cats played with. UK averaged 91.8 points per game while shooting over 40 percent from the field in all four contests. Of the team’s 142 total made field goals this week, 103 of them came off an assist. That means over 72 percent of the team’s made shots came off a pass from a teammate — an elite number. For reference, the highest assist rate from a Power 5 school in 2022-23 was 66.2 percent from Tennessee.

Above all else, Kentucky looked like a team that will be fun to watch this coming season. It’s important we remember that this was still mid-July basketball, but the entertainment value of this group is off the charts. There’s a mix of young and old with talent at all five positions. And oh yeah, there are two injured seven-footers still waiting to be added to the roster.

Welcome to the party, Justin Edwards

Five-star freshman Justin Edwards is a projected lottery pick in the 2024 NBA Draft and is even viewed as a potential top-three pick by some experts. But it did take him a while to find his groove this week. It wasn’t until halfway through Kentucky’s second game of the event that the 6-foot-8 wing began to find his rhythm.

But when he did — when it counted the most in the gold medal game — he proved worthy of the hype. Edwards finished Sunday with a game-high 23 points on 10-20 shooting (2-6 3PT) in the rematch against Canada. He added seven rebounds, two assists, one steal, and two blocks to his stat line in just under 28 minutes played.

Not only was Edwards incredibly aggressive on the offensive end in the first half, but he was active on defense all night long. It’s that end of the floor where he’s going to make a constant impact for Kentucky this season. However, when he’s scoring 20-plus points — considering all the other offensive weapons UK has at its disposal — it’ll be tough to take down the Wildcats on any given night once the season rolls around.

Not the prettiest brand of 1st half basketball

Admittedly, the first half against Canada wasn’t exactly ideal. Although Kentucky held the lead throughout the majority of the opening 20 minutes, it was arguably the biggest “struggle” (using that term loosely) on offense of the event. The second quarter, in particular, showed some cracks in UK’s offense. Chalk it up to playing four games in five days or Canada dipping in and out of a zone defense, but it wasn’t the best performance we saw.

That being said, the stats still highly favored Kentucky, which led 45-39 at the break. The Wildcats recorded 14 assists on 18 made baskets and still shot 50 percent overall. But there were also eight turnovers and some scrambling on defense. Canada’s Addison Patterson was on a mission to get buckets and was rarely interrupted, putting up 18 first-half points, although he would finish the game with just 20 after shooting 1-7 in the second half.

A dominant 3rd quarter performance

Despite tired legs, Kentucky came out rolling in the third quarter, even if it didn’t exactly feel that way. The Wildcats didn’t do anything eye-popping, but a 12-3 run heading into the locker room made the score look lopsided. UK took a 72-53 lead into the break and never looked back in the fourth.

Most notably, this was the best quarter of the event for freshman guard Rob Dillingham, who canned a three-pointer that he was fouled on. He would knock down the free throw before drilling another shot from deep (with a toe on the line) less than a minute later right before the halftime buzzer.

Fellow freshman guard DJ Wagner found his groove a bit in the third quarter as well, willing his way to the rim, hitting a shot from beyond the arc, and playing aggressively on the other end. Tre Mitchell was also impressive in the third, adding eight points, five rebounds, and two assists in the frame.

Canada went from being down by just a few points to having no chance at a comeback in a matter of minutes. That was a common theme throughout this week for Kentucky. To do it in the gold medal game was just the icing on the cake. I would expect we’ll see similar, game-changing runs this season from the ‘Cats.

Antonio Reeves is your GLOBL Jam MVP

And it was well-deserved. Fifth-year guard Antonio Reeves, who was tabbed as Kentucky’s team captain this week, showed in all four games just how important his return for a second season in Lexington is going to be. Sunday was actually his “worst” performance of the week — only 18 points on 6-12 shooting (4-8 3PT) in addition to two rebounds and two blocks — but he still had moments of brilliance. Reeves hit a trio of three-pointers in the fourth quarter that put to bed any thought of a Canadian comeback.

But as a whole, there was no stopping Reeves all week. Aside from a short stint of physical, up-in-his-face defense from Team Africa on Saturday, he was in full control as the most experienced Wildcat. Across four games, Reeves averaged 23.0 points in 28.5 minutes per contest. He shot a blistering 57.9 percent overall and an even more impressive 56.3 percent (18-32) from beyond the arc.

We should also give some credit to Tre Mitchell’s Sunday performance. He posted the only double-double by any Wildcat of the entire event, finishing with 18 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, and one steal in nearly 37 minutes played. Aside from Reeves, he might have been the most consistent presence all week for Kentucky. It’s tough to explain how important they’ll both be this year — both on and off the court.

So, when does the regular season start again?