Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 101-67 win over Stonehill College

Five things you need to know from No. 17 Kentucky’s 101-67 win over Stonehill College in men’s NCAA college basketball at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:

1. It’s Reed Sheppard’s world. The former North Laurel High School star, Kentucky’s 2023 Mr. Basketball, continues to make the transition to college hoops look easy.

In his fourth official college game, Sheppard lit up Rupp Arena. He hit 9 of 10 shots, 7 of 8 3-point shots and had a career-high 25 points.

The scalding-hot shooting was only part of Sheppard’s stellar play. He also had three rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

For the game, Kentucky was plus-42 with Sheppard on the court. The next-highest Wildcat in the plus-minus category was Rob Dillingham at plus-27.

Four games is a ridiculously small sample size. Opponents are probably going to start prioritizing Sheppard in their defensive scouting reports.

But if the former North Laurel star keeps playing like he has, do UK fans need to start worrying about him being a one-and-done player at Kentucky?

2. How do Wagner and Edwards bounce back? Kentucky’s heartbreaking 89-84 loss to No. 1 Kansas on Tuesday night in the Champions Classic in Chicago featured especially tough nights for lavishly touted UK freshmen D.J. Wagner and Justin Edwards.

Edwards, the No. 3-rated high school prospect in the class of 2023 in the Rivals 150, went 0-for-6 from the floor versus Bill Self’s Jayhawks and finished with one point, four rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot.

Wagner, the No. 6-rated prospect in the 2023 Rivals 150, went 1-for-12 versus Kansas and ended the game with four points, two rebounds, one assist and a steal.

Against Stonehill, the two prized UK freshmen were better but still did not seem fully comfortable.

The 6-foot-8, 203-pound Edwards finished with nine points on 4-of-8 shooting. He also had five rebounds and an assist with a turnover. He also missed all three of his 3-point attempts.

Edwards’ biggest cheer of the night came when he dropped in a layup with 19.5 seconds left in the game to put Kentucky over 100 points.

Meanwhile, the 6-4, 192-pound Wagner also finished with nine points. The Camden, New Jersey, product hit 3 of 9 shots, 3 of 8 treys and finished with three assists, two blocks, a steal and two turnovers.

Kentucky’s next high-profile matchup will come Nov. 28 when No. 12 Miami visits Rupp Arena for the first ACC/SEC Challenge. It would probably be helpful to UK’s chances if Edwards and Wagner find their groove by then.

3. Thiero’s encore. In the loss to Kansas, UK sophomore Adou Thiero played the best game of his UK career to date. The 6-8, 222-pound sophomore from Leetsdale, Pennsylvania, set career highs with 16 points and 13 rebounds against the Jayhawks.

On Friday night, Thiero was not as dynamic. He finished with six points and five rebounds in 27 minutes.

4. Kentucky ball security. Impressively for a team using three freshmen among its primary ball handlers and playing at a more frenetic pace than in recent seasons, UK entered Friday night’s game doing a remarkable job at limiting turnovers.

In UK’s first three games, the Wildcats turned the ball over only six times against New Mexico State, three times against Texas A&M-Commerce and eight times against Kansas.

That came out to an average of 5.7 turnovers a game, which made UK No. 1 out of 351 Division I men’s basketball programs in fewest miscues a game.

On Friday night, it was more of the same in the first half. UK had only three turnovers in half one.

However, Stonehill coach Chris Kraus sent his team out in a 3-2 zone in half two, and it bothered the Cats.

Kentucky turned the ball over 11 times in the second half and finished with 14 turnovers for the game.

5. A milestone win in Rupp. The victory over Stonehill ran Kentucky’s all-time record to 650-81 in games played at Rupp Arena — which opened for the 1976-77 season.

The John Calipari coaching era (since 2009-10) has yielded 223 (versus 21 defeats) of those victories at Rupp Arena.

UK fans are tired of losing the big games. But you need to be patient with this team.

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