Last year, Kentucky’s defense was a glaring weakness. In particular, it was their on-ball defense that was sub-par, as they did not do a very good job of staying in front of their man and handling athletic players that can attack the rim at will. Through the offseason, it was a major priority to improve on that, bringing in guys like Mo Dioubate, Kam Williams, Denzel Aberdeen, and returning guys like Otega Oweh and Collin Chandler to help with that issue.
With Pro Day, Big Blue Madness, and now the Blue-White game under their belt, Mark Pope is already seeing a huge step up in not just their athleticism offensively, but on the defensive end, too, with their ability to stay in front of their man. That was on display in Friday night’s scrimmage, and Pope detailed just how much of an improvement it has been already.
“I think this team has the potential to be just an elite, elite, elite level cutting team. One of the things that’s gonna be interesting, is we’re so much more capable of actually beating people off the bounce than we were last year, but actually balancing that out is going to be really important. Last year. we didn’t have a lot of guys that could beat anybody off the bounce, so it was just natural we’d flow into our second side, into, like, kind of this elite level cutting train. Now we have several guys that actually go punish you off the bounce. I’m telling you it’s going to be a dance for us, because this all ball movement is really vital to everything we do.”
Kentucky has plenty of players capable of creating those plays offensively, and it all starts with point guard Jaland Lowe. The Wildcats also have the athleticism able to cut and create that space on offense while the ball continues to move around. Pope, since he first arrived at Kentucky, has noted that ball movement is key to his offense’s success, and this year, he has the athleticism to really make it pop during games. It’s going to be really fun to watch just how elite Kentucky’s defense can end up, too, as they have the versatility all over the floor to make sure the holes are filled from last season’s biggest weakness.
Mark Pope brought in the right pieces to make sure his team is one of the best in the country, and he knows just how well he checked those much-needed boxes this off-season and it’s already showing.