Blue defeats White 126-104 in annual Blue-White Scrimmage

UK fans were able to see the Cats with a more structured defense Wednesday night during the Blue-White scrimmage at Rupp Arena.

The Blue team was comprised of sophomore Terrence Jones, freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, senior Eloy Vargas, sophomore Jarrod Polson, sophomore Doron Lamb, sophomore Ryan Harrow and walk-on Brian Long. The White team was freshman Anthony Davis, freshman Kyle Wiltjer, senior Darius Miller, sophomore Stacey Poole, freshman Marquis Teague, junior Twany Beckham and another walk-on, Sam Malone.

The scrimmage concluded with the Blue team on top 126-104, with sophomore forward Terrence Jones breaking the Blue-White Scrimmage scoring record previously set by former Cats Brandon Knight (37 points) and Jodie Meeks (32 points).

For the full 40 minutes, Jones was explosive up and down the court, driving hard into the lane, drawing fouls, making plays and scoring points. He started off hot and kept going throughout the first half, scoring 26 points in each half.

Jones was shooting perfectly from the field until around the seven minute mark, but ended the scrimmage 24-31 shooting.

“I was just playing and just pretending it’s practice, really,” Jones said.

Jones ended the scrimmage with 52 points and 16 rebounds, but his teammates say that’s how he plays every day in practice.

“I see him do that every day in practice. He dominates,” freshman guard Marquis Teague said. “He’s a great player. He’s going to help us out a lot this year.”
This backs up Calipari’s mind-set he instilled in Jones at the beginning of practices when he told him to go in thinking of the freshmen as good players, but not better than him.

Four of the freshmen scored double-digit points during the scrimmage. Kidd-Gilchrist ended the scrimmage with 21 points while fellow forwards Davis and Wiltjer tallied 27 points each. Teague accounted for 19 points for the White team.

“We (the freshmen) are finally here and we just want to win,” Kidd-Gilchrist said. “At first it was a little cold out there, but we got used to it and we just had fun with it.”

The freshmen started off slow in the beginning of the first half, but they all ended the first half in double-digits.

The Cats showed off offensively throughout the game with flashy dunks and limited defense, but this lack of defense is something Calipari wanted to stress most going into the first exhibition game of the season.

While UK was pressing  during the scrimmage, the offensive plays outnumbered the defensive plays significanly.

“We’re not playing screens well,” Calipari said. “We’re not playing the pick-and-roll real well right now because, really, we focused on it offensively. Our post defense is spotty, at best.”

The Cats showed versatility in the srimmage, using Calipari’s dribble-drive offense that is familiar to the veterans as well as integrating the pick-and-roll and the zone defense.

But the team knows that Calipari expects more out of them and they expect more from themselves.

“I think we did pretty good. We gotta get better defensively. Nobody should really be scoring 126 points, but we know we gotta get better as the season goes on,” Miller said. “We’ve got a lot of weapons, so it’s tough to guard each other. Especially when we know how we’re going to play, but we’re going to get better at it and continue to grow throughout the season.”

The Cats will play in their first exhibition game against Transylvania at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2 at Rupp Arena.