Kentucky 82 - 50 Samford (No. 2,062)

The Cats played really well tonight. According to Ken Pomeroy, they were supposed to win by a score of 84-51. But that analysis was based on a bunch of games in which Terrence Jones was scoring close to 15 points per game, and Jones was out tonight with an injured finger. In other words, even though Jones was out of the game, UK won by almost the same margin they were expected to win by if he had played.

How did the Cats replace Jones's scoring? It almost all came from Doron Lamb, Darius Miller, and Marquis Teague, each of whom deserves some attention. Teague has been slowly getting better for some time -- he's had 40 assists and only 13 turnovers since the Old Dominion game -- but he's really stepped things up since his dreadful first half against IU. Teague scored 15 points in the second half against the Hoosiers, 11 points against Chattanooga, and 14 points tonight on 6-11 shooting. He's still not much of a threat from three-point range (9-26 so far this year), but his ability to get to the rim is becoming more and more impressive, and I think he's really starting to figure out how to run the offense.

Miller played with great confidence tonight -- he hit 3-6 three-pointers (he's now up to 28.2 percent for the year from three-point range), and he repeatedly drove past the slower Samford players. He finished with 17 points, and -- to the folks from Samford, at least -- he looked like a dominant player.

But Lamb is the real revelation. Even last year, as a freshman, he had a very unusual talent for a modern college basketball player: he can actually shoot the ball. Most great players these days develop a game that looks like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist; they play extremely hard and use their physical skill to beat you at the rim. (Some powerhouse teams, like Kansas, pretty much only play that way.) Lamb, on the other hand, can do all sorts of old-school stuff: he can shoot three's, hit pull-up jumpers in the lane, make free throws (most of the time), collect long rebounds, and get backdoor layups. Calipari said that Lamb has been practicing 45 extra minutes each day, and tonight he looked like a big-time star: 8-12 from the field, 4-5 from three-point range, 6-7 from the line, 26 points and 6 rebounds. And he never seemed to break a sweat.

Other players had their moments. Eloy Vargas had won of his better games; 17 minutes and 7 rebounds. Anthony Davis got 8 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 blocks with consummate ease, and Samford's focus on stopping him is what opened the floor for Lamb, Teague, and Miller. MKG pitched in 10 points in only 27 minutes. Kyle Wiltjer, who always looks like a Dukie who happens to be lost in Lexington, struggled for awhile, but hit two shots at the end to finish with 5 points and four boards.

We also have a hello and a good-bye. Twany Beckham, a guard who transferred from Mississippi State, is now eligible -- in his second game for the Cats, he played seven minutes, but it's still too early to tell what he can do. Sam Malone, a freshman walk-on, tore up his knee in practice and may have made his last appearance in a UK uniform. I know he's heartbroken. But I saw him score four points -- and get huge applause -- in the win over Marist, and for the rest of his life he can tell people he played for Coach Cal, and he scored for Kentucky in a real game at Rupp Arena. How many of us would love to be able to say that?

Cal was in a good mood after the game, and he took care to let everyone know that Jones is really hurt, that he is anxious to come back, and that he's a great kid. I take all that as a good sign, and I hope it's true, because Jones and Lamb are two of my all-time favorite Wildcats, and I wish them only the best.