These last few days, we got an early sneak peek at what the Kentucky Wildcats could have in store for us in college basketball this upcoming season in Toronto. The ‘Cats went across the border and dismantled their way through the world with a record of 4-0. Although Kentucky had some concerns here and there at moments, they got the job done to take home the gold medal on Sunday Night. Along with the competition between the 3 opposing competitors were nowhere close to what Kentucky may see in the SEC this season, it sure is a good start to build team chemistry along with seeing what the possible rotation could be for Calipari’s squad come November.
Round Robin Games
In the opening game, the ‘Cats struggled on both ends of the floor and only led Germany by 3 at the break. While Kentucky did not look too strong out of the break either, they controlled the lead and played even with the Germans to take a lead-off victory with a final of 81-73. Star players Tre Mitchell & Antonio Reeves led Kentucky by contributing to 44 of the team’s total points and having four triples a pair.
In game two, the Wildcats faced off against their toughest opponent, Canada, but had no problem and easily blew the game out within minutes leading by 15 at half. The second half was all gas, no brakes yet again as they dismantled the Canadians 92-69 and secured their spot in the championship round on Sunday, the 16th. Kentucky had multiple contributors in this matchup with having four players score double-digits, and eight total players get a bucket. The top performers however were none other than Antonio Reeves who dropped a whopping 23 points alongside Justin Edwards, Reed Sheppard, and Adou Theiro who all combined for 41 pts, 14 reb, and 12 ast on the evening.
In the final round robin game, Kentucky was all offense, no defense and defeated team Africa by a close score of 104-92. Although the ‘Cats led halftime 59-41 and seemed to easily cruise by Africa, the Africans showed hope and took the wheels off Kentucky by making it within ten. Late minute free throws secured a 3-0 round robin record for Kentucky however as they won by twelve. Reeves stole the show yet again by draining 8 from downtown along with DJ Wagner getting 18 points of his own.
Championship Game
The most anticipated game of GLOBL JAM was a North American matchup between Canada and USA where Kentucky came out on top win the Gold for USA 89-72. Antonio Reeves, who led Kentucky in points and threes won MVP for team USA. The GLOBL JAM sweep for the Wildcats is only the sneak peek we will see of this Kentucky team, but we were grateful to see how Kentucky’s rotation could possibly stack up.
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