Kentucky Basketball: Montevallo Falcons @ Kentucky Wildcats

Chet White

The Montevallo Falcons are coming into Rupp Arena for their first game and UK's 2nd and final exhibition game before the season starts on Friday. Montevallo last year posted a 20-10 record in the Peach Belt Conference and are a Division 2 school located in Alabama. A very mature and seasoned team that did lose 3 starters but has 2 seniors and 8 juniors on the roster.

This should be a much better team for UK to play as Montevallo is both bigger and more talented than Transylvania was. Expect Montevallo to try and play how Transylvania did though by taking a lot of three's as that is their strength and are still considerably small than UK. This should be another easy win for UK though and a final chance to work out the kinks before the games start to really count.

What I'm Looking For:

• I want to see the defense play the entire game like they did the 2nd half of the Transylvania game. This is a team that will shoot threes and won't be afraid to shoot them from closer to NBA range.
• How does Aaron look again at the point guard position. With his brother Andrew out for another game I want to see Aaron again run this offense while not forcing anything and get everybody involved and keep the same ball movement as in the last game.
• Will Julius Randle continue his relentlessness? I want to see him play just like he did in his last game. On the constant attack while not being selfish and leaving his mark on every aspect of the game.
• Continued improvement from Willie Cauley-Stein. Had a very solid first game of the year but I want to see him dominate down in the paint against a team that he is so much bigger than.
• Can Poythress finally live up to his potential? I want to see him play hard and attack the basketball. If he goes half as hard as Randle does then he can be a dominant player but he needs to start playing with aggressiveness.
• Get out and run. This starts with the defense. Get stops, get steals, block some shots and then get the ball and go. Don't waste time push the ball and attack and get some more easy baskets.

Like the Transylvania game I expect Montevallo to stay somewhat competitive early in the game but about halfway through the first half I expect the Wildcats to go on a run and start to pull away and have the game in the bag by halftime.

UK 88 - Montevallo 58