Last night’s Cats game was a barn burner. Exciting to watch, lots of great plays. Our guys just made a few freshman mistakes at the end, resulting in a loss, but not a bad loss. A comment by dmwest12 on A Sea of Blue sums up how I feel about last night’s game nicely:

This is the best I’ve ever felt about a loss. Didn’t expect to win this especially the way it started. Below you all will find notes (not that you care for my amateur opinion but it’s nice to share with the BBN).

1. Rob Dillingham can no longer be considered a two year player. He is lottery bound. The kid is in a word DYNAMIC! Most exciting player since Malik Monk no doubt.

2. DJ Wagner and Justin Edwards (our top two recruits) aren’t either of the top two players from the class. Dillingham and Sheppard are. Wagner must figure out his shot for us to go deep in March. Edwards must rely on his length and athleticism to defend and rebound well and allow offensive opportunities to come to him. I knew Edwards wasn’t worth the preseason hype but I was hoping I was wrong. Still think he can have a huge impact on this team as the season progresses. 

3. Adou Thiero, so many things to say, great first half but was tired in the second. Physical but his shot needs work. Overall I was very happy with what he gave us tonight especially in the second half.

4. Tre Mitchell didn’t do the things he normally does well (shoot, pass, run the offense) but he absolutely stepped up defensively and covered a lot of ground against HD despite his crazy numbers tonight. Those numbers seem much less impressive considering he’s half a foot taller than everyone else.

5. To take care of the ball for majority of the game like we did, against potentially the best defensive team in the country with freshman running the show is the most encouraging thing I’ve seen in the last 5+ years.

6. Cal made poor substitutions and it cost us. He kept trying to force Wagner as PG1 when things were clearly working better with Dillingham or Sheppard. I love DJ but he was way off tonight and his minutes belonged to the other two. (Yes I’m aware that they got in foul trouble but Cal sat Dillingham after he had the hottest hand Kentucky may have seen in the Cal era.) 

7. The future is bright with this new look offense and abundance of talent, can’t wait to see how the 7 footers will impact this team. Go Cats!!!

All I will add to dmwest12‘s notes is that Thiero is a beast, an absolute beast. Against guys his size he’s unstoppable. And with one of our centers healthy, we win that game. So it’s going to be a fun year to watch the Cats.