John Calipari included all four of his returning scholarship players _ and one freshman who was not among his McDonald's All-American recruits _ in his first starting five of the exhibition season Sunday evening.
Sophomore guards Ashton Hagans and Immanuel Quickley, sophomore forward EJ Montgomery, junior center Nick Richards, and freshman forward Keion Brooks accounted for Calipari's starting five in Kentucky's exhibition opener against Georgetown College, the Wildcats' first matchup with someone other than themselves in this preseason.
On Friday, the UK coach said he was unsure of what his starting five would be, noting that he was still tinkering with lineups.
"Don't know yet. We've still got a couple of days, and really it doesn't matter," Calipari said. "I'm trying different combinations now in practice."
Hagans, the team's returning starter at point guard from last season, was a shoo-in to start. Montgomery and Richards are the team's only returnees in the frontcourt. Quickley was impressive in last weekend's Blue-White scrimmage, and Brooks has drawn praise from Calipari in recent days.
Brooks _ a highly touted recruit from Indiana _ was the No. 24 player in the 2019 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings for that group. Calipari has been playing him in the post and on the perimeter in practices, and Brooks has been accepting of his role early on.
"Just wherever he wants me at during that practice at a particular time," Brooks said Friday. "He wants me to challenge EJ and also have EJ challenge me on both ends, then when I flip to the '3' I'm going against Kahlil (Whitney) a lot of the time. I think it's good for me being able to bang down low with EJ and him making me better and I'm pushing him as well. Also, with playing the '3', me and Kahlil and our versatility (are) making it hard for each other every time down."
That starting five leaves a quartet of healthy scholarship players off the bench: graduate transfer forward Nate Sestina, McDonald's All-American freshman forward Kahlil Whitney, McDonald's All-American freshman guard Tyrese Maxey, and freshman wing Johnny Juzang. Another freshman, reigning Kentucky Mr. Basketball Dontaie Allen, is still recovering from a torn ACL suffered last December and has not been cleared for a full return.
Calipari said Friday that the recent addition of 6-foot-9 walk-on Ben Jordan _ a pitcher on the UK baseball team _ has benefitted the program and allowed him to experiment with different lineup combinations. He also noted that Hagans and Maxey _ two dynamic point guards _ have looked good together on the practice court.
"We're just trying different things," Calipari said. "Really, half of the practice is them developing habits, which takes away from the team stuff. ... My staff's all over me: 'We still gotta do this ... this ... this.' I said, 'Look, until they get these habits down it doesn't matter.'"
Maxey, Sestina and Whitney all came in as UK's first substitutes of the game at the 14:36 mark of the first half. The Cats had already jumped out to a 16-4 lead by that point. Juzang entered the game at the 13:32 mark.
Kentucky will have one more exhibition game _ against Kentucky State on Friday night _ before opening the regular season against No. 1 Michigan State in Madison Square Garden on Nov. 5.
