Men’s Basketball Cardinals play themselves, again…

Red vs. White part 2

On Sunday the Yum! Center was open again for Men’s Basketball. The Cards were on the floor for the second of three Red-White Scrimmages and the Cards came out on top again.

Luke Hancock had an opportunity to show what he brings to the table as his red team teammate Peyton Siva went to the bench early with an ankle roll. Rick Pitino made light of the Peyton’s situation saying over the PA that maybe the point guard was faking it to get a day off.

Hancock led all scorers with 29 connecting on four-of-four three pointers and converting 11-of-12 at the free throw line. In the first Red-White scrimmage no one shot well from beyond the arc. The second go ‘round was much better as the Cards shot 13-of-37 from deep. Angel Nunez hit a pair and Tim Henderson added three threes.

Kevin Ware really stood out in the first scrimmage and backed that performance up in the second. Ware took over in the fourth quarter and made it his personal mission to score the basketball. He easily took the most shots of any player, attempting 21 from the floor, and scored 22 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Always great to see guards get after it on the boards.

Kevin Ware messed around inside and got a double-double.

Montrezl Harrell teamed up with Hancock and Ware and had 20 points of his own and a game high five steals. The freshman brought a ton of energy and added some big dunks that got the crowd going. At least one of those dunks came off of the offensive glass as Harrell led all players with five offensive boards.

Russ Smith had a quiet 20 points as he teamed up with double-double performers Gorgui Dieng and Chane Behanan. Behanan led all players with 11 boards, but was quiet offensively and only got up for one crowd-pleasing dunk.

The free throw shooting for the team was also a highlight as the two sides combined to convert 40-of-53 from the stripe. Great to see that kind of focus and it was definitely an improvement from the first scrimmage. Wayne Blackshear was 6-of-6 from the line and scored 15 points.

This team has a lot of players that can contribute on both ends of the floor. The depth is awesome and it will be fun to see how Pitino shuffles the lineups when he can only put five players on the court at a time instead of ten.

Next Saturday is the final public scrimmage before the Cards welcome Pikeville to town the following week for some exhibition action.

Basketball is here and in no time we will be in the midst of that fantastic time of year when football and basketball can simultaneously consume us.