The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas got the first look at the 2014-15 University of Kentucky Wildcats and, according to head coach John Calipari, the team exceeded its expectations set for the Big Blue Bahamas Tour.

The six-game exhibition series concluded yesterday when the Wildcats were edged out by the Dominican Republic national team 63-62 at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

“It was a learning experience and that’s what we were trying to do down here. This was a great run of games and experiences for these young people. Six games in eight days, it was a tough run,” he said. “Most teams are using this time for 10 days of practice. They don’t care who they play, they don’t care if they win or lose - well they don’t care until you lose, then it matters - but we needed it for more. I needed professional level teams, I needed grown men, I needed experienced physical guys that knew how to play, that’s what this team needed. This trip should have probably been six days, not nine, but it was fun. We got what we needed.”

In the opener, the Wildcats won 74-49 in their first matchup with the Puerto Rican national team reserves. They followed with an 81-58 win over the Champagne Charlons-Reims out of France, and a 93-57 win over Puerto Rico to complete the first segment of the tour.

After a pair of off days, they returned to top the Dominican Republic national team, 83-71, defeated the French club in a rematch, 77-72, and closed out with the loss against the DR.

Despite the shortcomings in the final game on the court, Calipari said the experience the team gained on the court should serve them well late in the season when the NCAA tournament rolls around in March.

“They got closer together. It was a great time and great that they can spend talking about different things that we are going to encounter this year. We had the time and this was a great place to do it. So it was both, spending time, vacation but we played six games in eight days against grown men, which was a great challenge for us,” he said. “There’s stuff that won’t happen during the year. [In late game situations] we didn’t really have stuff in. We didn’t have side out of bounds yet, we didn’t have baseline out of bounds yet, we didn’t have ‘alright late shot clock, what are we taking’ scenarios. We didn’t have that stuff in yet so none of that bothered me.”

The Wildcats were led by their upperclassmen, most notably junior forward Alex Poythress who averaged 14.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

Sophomore guard Aaron Harrison averaged 12.4 points per game while his twin brother Andrew Harrison averaged 7.8 points and 6.2 assists.

Sophomore centre Dakarai Johnson averaged 8.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.

The highly touted freshmen class also gave Big Blue Nation a prelude of what’s to come with the performance of Karl Towns and Tyler Ulis.

Towns averaged 13.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game while Ulis averaged 9.2 points and 4.8 assists per game.

UK will make its 2014-15 debut in about a month at “Big Blue Madness” on October 17 when the team is revealed to the general public.

The inter-squad scrimmage is scheduled for October 27 and the season tips off against Pikeville University on November 2.