Kentucky 85, Grand Canyon 45 Game Recap: Cats Take Care of Business

Yes, 85-45 sounds about right. It's somehow dominant and yet not dominant enough, considering a second half where Kentucky endured some sloppy play.

The Cats got off to a great start, which is really promising. Great starts are not something that defined last year's squad and to see Andrew Harrison rack up seven quick points was great to see. I like him being a distributor, but it's just as important to have him be aggressive offensively.

Speaking of being aggressive, Alex Poythress had a great moment early on when he did the two things I want from him with the ball in his hands this year. He missed a wide open three, which was a fine shot to take, but when the ball ended up back with him he took off from crazy far back and tried to dunk, getting fouled. That's his role this year. Either an open three or try to dunk.

Then just over four minutes into the game, the White squad came in with Kentucky already up 12-6. Tyler Ulis immediately stole a pass and went in for a layup. A fitting start to his season. He's going to be such a spark-plug for this team. Unfortunately, that group went on a big drought until a Trey Lyles three then dunk put them up 19-6.

It's important to note that they held Grand Canyon scoreless during that stretch. Actually, for the entire first half, they didn't score when the White squad was in the game. Very interesting.

In the second half, Ulis had an impressive play where he recognized the defender going way under a screen and stepped into a rhythm three. Coincidentally, that was the last three the Cats would hit all game and would go 1-of-8 in the second half. That's really what kept them from blowing the game open even more than they could have in the second.

While Grand Canyon shot better in the second half, Kentucky still had some good stretches of defense, especially to close out the game. The Antelopes made a layup with 6:54 left to go in the game and didn't score another basket until 20 seconds left to go. 

Overall, Kentucky has another gear in them that they didn't get to tonight. In the second, instead of stepping on the gas, too many times they played content to just be up 40, as strange as that may sound. 

USA TODAY Sports

Notes of interest:

- Karl-Anthony Towns and Lyles were a combined 1-of-5 from three. Lyles took four of those and made one, but between those two, five threes is too many threes to shoot.

- Kentucky shot 48.6 percent for the game, which is not stellar by their standards. They missed a lot of close shots, which Cal did not seemed pleased about on the sidelines.

- However, of their 36 misses, they rebounded 24 of those. That's rebounding two out of every three misses. That is stellar, by any standard.

- Aaron Harrison only took one three and for the most part was aggressive in attacking the basket, scoring all three of his buckets from inside the arc. 

- Andrew Harrison led all scorers with 16 and went to the line six times, making five of his attempts. He also had three assists, so it's not like he was only looking to score. That showed great balance.

- Kentucky's 10 blocks are going to be pretty standard. That's only going to get better once Towns improves his timing and defense in general.

- Willie Cauley-Stein was quietly excellent. He went 6-of-7 and had four blocks. I'm expecting a monster season from him. I will not be surprised if he vaults into top-5 pick talk quickly.

It's hard for a team to stay focused for 40 minutes against an opponent that they're clearly superior to. I can excuse the sloppy play here, but they'll need to tighten up their play on Tuesday against Kansas. This was a good warm-up, as Sunday against Buffalo will be as well.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments or hit me up on Twitter: Follow @TheRealMattKing