BY BRITTNI MCCOY
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

We were blessed with an early glimpse of Kentucky basketball in the Bahamas a few weeks ago. After the Saint Peters loss, Cal is in the hot seat.

From what we saw, he knows it and has hit the recruiting trail hard.

Jacob Toppin looks like an absolute beast of a man. He’s an NBA player that should have been playing in that NCAA tournament game over Brooks.

If so, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about a first-round loss.

Oscar was doing Oscar things.

Antonio Reeves is exactly what we need behind the arc. The guy has a quick release and is ready to shoot at all moments of the game. He looked calm and collected the entire time even when were down in game 4.

Cason Wallace doesn’t look like a freshman. Once he gets experience and decision-making behind him, I could see him taking a lot of Wheeler’s playing time.

Chris Livingston looks like he’s already played a season of college basketball.

I can’t believe Adou Thiero is a four-star recruit. Cal knew what he was looking at when he saw Thiero play in high school. He has a nose for where the ball is going on defense.

Damion Collins was out there taking lives. He was Mr. Lob against Alabama last season and then barely played after that. If he plays every game this year like he played in the Bahamas, we’re getting No. 9.

Lance Ware reminds me of Josh Harrellson. I could see Lance throwing a ball at a guy’s chest as he falls out of bounds.

It just looked like we could already beat the Wildcat team that peaked in January last season.

We even added another recruit that showed up on campus, Ugonna Ayenso. He looks like the guy that will come in during the second half of an SEC game and get us a win.

I know, I know. It was just preseason competition.

But it just appears we have every piece for a championship.

The only weakness that I could find with this team was Sahvir Wheeler. At times, he just looks out of sorts. If he could improve his shot, it would open the inside more for our bigs. Teams are backing off him, which is creating more turnovers when he drives.

Wallace could be the guy that we can count on to hit shots at the point guard position when Wheeler is out of control.

If Cal makes anything less than a Final Four run for this team, I’m going to start a petition for Stoops to take over the basketball team.

More on that bromance next week.