The Kentucky Wildcats have a long and storied college basketball history. They've never had a debut quite like that of Alex Wilkins on Tuesday.
What Wilkins achieved in the season-opening win over Manhattan may take a long time to potentially ever be replicated.
Any time Manhattan brought the ball near Wilkins, he took it, at a rate even better than the great Rajon Rondo once did in his Kentucky debut.
Wilkins notched seven steals in his debut for Kentucky, which is just as big a number as it sounds.
It's the most a player has ever had in their UK debut.
Rondo held the previous mark with five.
Wilkins also had 11 points and five assists in an absolutely stellar debut.
Wilkins isn't new to college basketball. This is his second season at the NCAA level.
He played for mid-major powerhouse Furman last year. He averaged 17.8 points and 4.7 assists per game for Furman.
Standing 6-foot-6, Wilkins is a lanky guard from the Boston area who should make a difference for Kentucky not just defensively but also as a scorer and a playmaker.
He was the Most Outstanding Player at the SoCon Tournament after winning the conference tourney last year to get Furman to the NCAA Tournament. He averaged 21.7 points per game in that conference tournament.
That's all the kind of stuff Kentucky watched and knew they could benefit from. That's why Wilkins is in Lexington now. And it's clear, at least against overmatched foes, that Wilkins can be a problem.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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