Takeaways from the Blue-White Scrimmage

If you missed the Blue-White scrimmage, you missed quite a show. The guard play was impressive, this team is full of freak athletes, Bam Adebayo looked good in the paint and Wenyen Gabriel and Sacha Killeya-Jones stretched the floor. All-in-all, this team looked outstanding. In the end, the Blue team beat the White team 110-94 in front of the largest Blue-White game crowd ever. Here are some takeaways from the game.

De’Aaron Fox is incredibly fast

Fox was blowing past everyone tonight. He had 31 points, and got a good deal of his points driving to the basket and making layups or drawing fouls. Calipari said in the preseason that Fox needed to learn to use his speed as his number one weapon, and it appears as though he has learned to do that. His change of pace dribble had the White team off balance all night.

Isaiah Briscoe has gotten much better at shooting

Briscoe has greatly improved his jumper, which was his biggest weakness last year. Briscoe led all scorers with 39 points, and even though he was a high-volume shooter, he still shot nearly 50% from the field, making 14 of 30. He went 9-12 from the free throw line and 2-6 from the 3-point line, so in comparison to last year he was improved in every shooting category tonight. He also showed that he can do everything he could do last year, as he showed the ability to drive to the basket, and also dished out a game-high 10 assists.

Malik Monk looked like a dunk contest winner

Yet another guard who looked great tonight, Monk was a human highlight reel. He could throw it down with authority, pull off a 360 and finish off alley-oops with ease. He showed why he’s drawing comparisons to Russell Westbrook, and he filled it up from all over the floor as he finished with 26 points.

There was already a little injury adversity

It may have been a scrimmage, but there were moments where the Cats were going all out. Both Adebayo and Sacha Killeya-Jones suffered minor blows to the face. They briefly left the floor and returned with bandages on. Calipari said afterward that they both got stitched up in the locker room before returning. Luckily it was just incidental contact and no one was in too bad of shape. Isaac Humphries and Tai Wynyard were also out from the start, although Cal said Humphries sitting out was a precautionary measure.

Sacha Killeya-Jones looks like he’ll be able to stretch the defense

Killeya-Jones was getting it done from multiple spots on the floor, as he finished strong around the rim and showed his ability to hit jump shots. His performance surprised some people, and even garnered the attention of Coach Cal in the post game, as he said that SKJ looked really good.