Thirteen practices into the regular season, Kentucky held its first scrimmage at the end of Monday’s practice.

With officials running the court, the scoreboard turned on and fouls being called as if it were a regular-season game, the team scrimmaged for about 30 minutes as a prelude to Wednesday’s Blue-White Scrimmage at Rupp Arena.

For Monday’s practice report, we’ll look at the scrimmage only. Here are some observations and highlights:

• Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Brian Long, Eloy Vargas, Twany Beckham, Doron Lamb, Jarrod Polson and Terrence Jones suited up for the blue team. Darius Miller, Marquis Teague, Anthony Davis, Stacey Poole, Ryan Harrow, Kyle Wiltjer and Sam Malone were on the white.
• The blue team held a 33-27 lead at the 7:58 mark when John Calipari ended it. 
• It may have been framed as a scrimmage, but it was still within the realm of the practice and therefore a teaching opportunity for Coach Cal. Rarely would two or three possessions go by without Calipari blowing his whistle to point out what he saw or to call a play. He would routinely huddle up the team with the ball and talk them through the upcoming possession.
• I wouldn’t look too much into the following scoring statistics – especially since they’re unofficial stats taken by me in a scrimmage that lasted 12 minutes of game time – but Davis and Jones led all scorers with nine points apiece. Vargas had eight points, Lamb had seven, and Poole and Wiltjer each had six. Again, take those for what they’re worth.
• Davis sets the tone of the scrimmage and showed why he’ll be such a force this year in the first couple of plays. At 6-foot-10, he picked off a pass near half court and raced the length of the floor for a one-hand dunk. Minutes later, he avoided the box out of Jones and slammed in a put-back with one hand.
• As Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, who was at Monday’s practice for a behind-the-scenes piece, noted on Twitter, Kidd-Gilchrist is going to be too good to keep off the court. Those winning plays that Coach Cal talked so much about in the early practices, Kidd-Gilchrist makes them.
• Miller has become such a proficient spot-up shooter that it’s going to open up the middle for himself and his teammates. On one play, he got Kidd-Gilchrist to commit to the 3, so he pump faked and dumped it down to Davis for a two-hand dunk. 
• Speaking of those two, the matchup of Kidd-Gilchrist and Miller was essentially a draw. Neither one had a bunch of offense opportunities because they were on each other like glue on the defensive end. 
• Major credit to Vargas for holding his own in his matchup against Davis. I can’t put my finger on what exactly it is that Vargas is doing better, but there is no question that he’s improved his all-around game. He just seems to be more comfortable with the ball in his hands. He had a nice pump fake on Davis on the baseline and then stayed strong at the basket to finish over the help defender. I said earlier not to put too much stock into the point production, but eight points in 12 minutes of play from Vargas is a pretty good indicator of the strides he’s made.
• Other matchups in the scrimmage included Jones-Wiltjer, Poole-Polson and Lamb-Teague.
• Wiltjer continues to flourish as a trailer. As Wiltjer trailed on one play, pump faked and stepped inside for a  2-point jumper – which he made – I wondered to myself, “How many times am I going to see that exact play this season?” My guess is a lot.
• I’m not really basing this off the scrimmage, but I think we’ll see a lot more pressing this year. That isn’t to say Coach Cal hasn’t utilized the full-court press a lot in his first two seasons, because he has, but this team is built for to press. Not only does this team have length, athleticism and speed, it has more depth. Cal didn’t have the luxury of a deep bench last year.
• Saw a little of the pick-and-roll offense in the scrimmage and what could make a player like Lamb so successful in it. As Jones showed for a screen at the top of the key and Lamb’s defender dropped under to avoid the pick, Lamb pulled up for an uncontested jumper. Coach Cal loved it.
• Wiltjer … hook shot … unstoppable. He made another ridiculous one in the scrimmage – this one from about eight feet out. Oh, and the righty did it with his left hand.
• Davis showed his range with a 3-pointer at the top of the key near the end of the scrimmage. What can’t he do?
• Calipari had a lot of hands-on instruction for Teague. I’d guess that 40 percent of the time he stopped play it was to talk to Teague and get him to understand how a point guard is supposed to play. Coach Cal knows better than anybody that the point guard holds the keys to the offense.