No. 23 Kentucky opened its regular season Tuesday night against Manhattan at Rupp Arena, carrying an unbeaten 3-0 exhibition record into the first game that counts. The Cats did not just win those tuneups. They looked better each time, and that is why this opener drew attention.
Mason Williams was part of that climb. He scored 14 points against Texas Tech and then added 18 against Central Florida, giving Kentucky a steady scoring hand as the preseason moved along. Milan Momcilovic led the Cats with 16 points in the opener against Little Rock, then Kentucky beat No. 19 Texas Tech 76-65 behind five players in double figures before finishing with a 90-76 overtime win over Central Florida.
The numbers tell the story of a team that kept moving in the right direction. Kentucky hit 12 of 28 shots from behind the arc against Little Rock, placed five players in double figures against Texas Tech, and then outscored Central Florida 19-5 in overtime after tying the game on an Alex Wilkins basket at the end of regulation. Mark Pope said he saw “so much growth and so much progress,” along with “tremendous trajectory growth in our turnover percentage going down, our assists going up.” He also pointed to a sharp rise in offensive rebounding on missed threes from game one to game three.
That matters because the opponent on Tuesday night came in from a far different place. Manhattan went 12-20 last season and exited in the first round of the Metro Conference Tournament, so this game was not a meeting of equals on paper. Kentucky’s preseason suggested momentum; Manhattan’s record suggested a team trying to reset itself while facing a ranked opponent in the opener.
So the question is not whether Kentucky arrived with confidence. It did. The question is whether the habits it showed in those three exhibitions — more assists, fewer turnovers, and better work on the glass — carry over now that the games count for real.
