As is the case every year in the Bluegrass, Big Blue Madness gives fans the first look at the 2016-17 UK Basketball team. With the practice/scrimmage format that Madness always showcases, we were able to learn a few things about this years team:

Isaiah Briscoe has definitely improved his outside game

As we all saw last season, Briscoe struggled to shoot from outside and that has been something that many fans have been wondering all offseason. To the pleasure of the crowd, Briscoe confirmed that he has indeed improved his jumpshot in the offseason.

In the practice drills portion of Big Blue Madness Friday night, Briscoe drilled a bunch of shots from the outside and even moved back into NBA range and continued to stroke it from deep. That shooting carried over into the scrimmage when he continued to hit shots from the outside to go along with his already impressive ability to get to the rim.

Issac Humphries looks lean and fast

The Australian big man who came on at the end of last year has really changed his physique and it showed Friday night at Big Blue Madness. Humphries was able to run the floor without being left behind as he would have been a year ago. Despite that things were not truly at full speed, Humphries was out and running in the 3 on 2 drills and the scrimmage.

With his ability to run the floor clearly improved, Humphries was also able to show off his midrange jump shot Friday night. The midrange game that Humphries has been known floor was somewhat lost last year because of his inability to get up and down the floor, but as we saw at Big Blue Madness, that has changed.

Edrice ‘Bam’ Adebayo is extremely athletic and is skilled

Being the physical specimen that he is, Adebayo was clearly going to be a presence down low in the paint, but what we did not realize is that Bam is extremely athletic. During Big Blue Madness on Friday night, it was clear that Adebayo was not only physical, but also athletic. At one point in the scrimmage, Adebayo slammed home a windmill dunk with ease, something someone of his size should not be able to do.

Not only is Bam physically gifted, but also he showed that he is very skilled. The practice portion of Madness showcased Adebayo’s ability to shoot the ball. The freshman was hitting jumpers from just past the free throw line and not only were they going in, but his stroke was very smooth. While he won’t be hitting threes like Anthony Davis or Karl-Anthony Towns did at UK, Bam will definitely be keeping defenses honest.

Length is going to cause problems for opposing offenses

As many fans have envisioned, this year’s team has the potential to be very good defensively, especially because of the length that the players bring to the table. That length was put on display on the first possession of the scrimmage at Madness when freshman Sacha Killeya-Jones completely suffocated Derek Willis with his length and forced a turnover. Although this was a scrimmage, the way that Killeya-Jones used his length to cause a turnover gave a nice preview as to what UK fans might be seeing this season.

UK is hot on the recruiting trail as usual

As expected, Coach Cal and his fellow coaches were able to bring 10+ recruits to Big Blue Madness to sell the program to the players and their families. A total of six 2017 5-star recruits were in attendance for arguably the biggest recruiting night of the year. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that Scout.com’s No. 2 overall prospect Mohamed Bama made an appearance at Madness along with other top recruits Kevin Knox, Quade Green, Nick Richards, PJ Washington and Trae Young.

Calipari gave his usually “State of the Program” address to sell the fans and recruits accompanied by a video from numerous former Cats. Not only was the video a good recruiting pitch, but former UK stars John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Willie Cauley-Stein were in attendance along with about 60 former Cats players. The former players and coaches as well as the current staff and players all played a big role in UK’s recruiting pitch for those in attendance Friday night.