Kentucky Basketball beats Little Rock: 3 observations from Wildcats’ exhibition opener

Kentucky Basketball is definitely back, and the season opener against Little Rock went about as well as it could have from a health standpoint.

Nobody got hurt, and that was probably the best thing I can say about a performance that was more concerning than I would have anticipated.

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Credit to former Kentucky great Travis Ford, though. He had his team ready to battle, and the Trojans made Kentucky work for it all night long.

The Cats got the win, but there were enough issues to make this a more interesting opener than anyone probably wanted. From turnovers to defensive potential, there is plenty to take away from the first game of the season.

Here are three things to look at after Kentucky’s 69-49 win.

1. Turnovers were a problem

I brought this up previously when discussing the pairing of Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins, but I didn’t expect Little Rock to be the team to drive that point home.

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At one point in the second half, the TV announcers said that Kentucky looked like it had never seen a press before. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, and certainly not something you want to hear about a team with this much talent playing a team like Little Rock.

Diallo and Wilkins combined for 7 turnovers and 6 assists. As a team, Kentucky finished with 19 turnovers and just 12 assists. Some of that low assist total can be attributed to missed shots, but the turnover numbers are still concerning.

The bigger issue is how easily the Trojans were able to disrupt Kentucky’s offense. When a team struggles to handle pressure and get into its sets, the talent advantage becomes a lot less meaningful. Kentucky has too many capable players to let opposing defenses dictate the game like that.

It’s only one game, and it’s the first one, so I’m not ready to declare this a season-long problem. However, ball security and handling pressure need to be priorities moving forward. Better teams will find ways to exploit those weaknesses if Kentucky doesn’t clean them up fast.

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/kentucky-basketball-beats-little-rock-010819271.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-17 01:08:00

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