Lafayette Leopards at Kentucky Wildcats (3) -- Open Game Thread

The Kentucky Wildcats welcome the Lafayette Leopards into Rupp Arena for a basketball tilt. This game is part of the Barclays Classic tournament, and the next 3 games will be part and parcel of that same event.

Details as follows, courtesy of UKAthletics.com:

Gameday Information
Barclays Center Classic Kentucky vs. Lafayette Fri., Nov. 16 - 7:00 p.m. ET Lexington, Ky. Game Notes: UK | Lafayette
Coverage
Gameday Live: Online video, audio, blog and stats TV: FS South/UK IMG Radio: UK IMG Gametracker Live Audio Text Updates

We have some unfortunate late-breaking news, courtesy of Matt Jones:

Lafayette's best player, Dan Trist, was hurt during the shoot around today and will not play tonight versus Kentucky

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) November 16, 2012

Sorry to hear about that, hopefully the injury is not serious.

Tonight's game provides an opportunity for Kentucky to get some much-needed experience against a Division I team that doesn't provide the kind of challenge that will threaten their won-loss record unless something goes drastically wrong, but the Leopards are a scrappy team that will give UK everything it can.

What we need to see tonight from UK:

• Better offensive and defensive rebounding;
• More shots for Kyle Wiltjer;
• Better defensive spacing;
• Better defensive rotations;
• More control from the guards, particularly Archie Goodwin;
• Better free throw shooting.

If we get all that, I'll be happy, although I doubt John Calipari will -- nor should he. This team has demonstrated that it can be everything we need it to be, but only for short stretches. We need to lengthen that out quite a bit if the 'Cats are going to compete for a national title this year.

Go, 'Cats!