After a 103-62 rout of Wright State in his debut as the Kentucky basketball coach, Mark Pope was asked about his playing rotation for the remainder of the season.

Ideally, how deep would he like the rotation to be?

The flow of games, he acknowledged, normally limits a rotation to eight or nine. Sometimes even seven.

Not enough to suit Pope.

“I would like to live in this 10 (player rotation) space as long as the game will let us,” he said that night.

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Despite injuries affecting the Wildcats’ roster in January and into February, UK stayed true to subbing in as many players as it could. Backup point guard Kerr Kriisa hasn’t played since suffering a foot injury in the overtime win against Gonzaga on Dec. 7. Lamont Butler, Kentucky’s starting point guard, has been slowed by a shoulder injury. And a nagging back has ailed forward Andrew Carr.

That’s simply meant more opportunities for others.

Ansley Almonor and Koby Brea have taken Butler and Carr’s spots in the lineup. Freshmen Trent Noah and Travis Perry are seeing more playing time. And sophomore Brandon Garrison continues to spell starting center Amari Williams.

Pope wouldn’t have it any other way.

“The way we function offensively is because of our pace and because of our movement away from the ball, and all that takes energy,” Pope said. “We’re an energy team. There are some teams in our league that are not. They’re just execution and kind of brute physicality teams. … We feed off energy. We live and thrive off energy. The way we were built was to beat teams through just wave after wave of energy.”

The returns have been uneven at times. Almonor and Brea combined for 30 points to spur an upset win at top-10 Tennessee on Jan. 28. A week later, Almonor didn’t tally a single stat in 24 minutes of play in a 98-84 loss at Ole Miss. The same went for Noah, who also didn’t log any individual statistic in the box score in 13 minutes of floor time.

“He’s a special young man, and he’s a terrific basketball player,” Pope said of Noah. “He’s been really good for us. He’s been good for us on the court in games, on the court in practice, in the locker room.

“He’s like a sponge. He just learned so fast. He really takes in (the) information, and he’ll execute it after one conversation, which is a tremendous skill. He’s going to be a great player.”

But his potential is less important at the moment than his current production. And along with Garrison and Perry, the three youngest members of the Wildcats have had stretches of the season in which they’ve struggled to produce when pressed into action.

But Pope sees no reason to shorten his rotation now.

“We think we have good young players, and so we’d like to expand their minutes so we can have more intensity and energy on the court more consistently from different guys,” Pope said. “But time is going to tell whether that’s actually a winning strategy or not. We’ll see. It just depends on how guys develop and where our health and roster sits. All that’s kind of going to remain to be seen.”

And it circles back to Pope’s specialty: offense. Specifically, playing with more tempo.

“This relentless pursuit of transition possessions, after makes, misses — even after dead balls, finding a way to get to pace,” he said. “And it’s really important to what we do. If we can functionally expand our lineup in a way that’s functional on both ends of the ball, that’s a place we’d like to make progress.”

He’ll never allow fatigue to be an impediment to achieving that objective.

“Sometimes you’ve got to deal with injuries. Sometimes you’ve got to deal with pain. Sometimes you have to deal with emotional fatigue,” Pope explained to a fan who called into the coach’s weekly radio show Feb. 5. “But that’s our job. So just know that everything you’re feeling, I’m feeling (and) our team is feeling. And it’ll be addressed.

“You’re going to be proud of this group. We’re going to make sure that you’re proud of us.” 

A group Pope hopes is a dozen strong by season’s end.

“For us to be at the very best we can be, with the players we have the way we’re built, the way we’re designed, the way our skill sets flow the more energy we can infuse in this game is a really key part of it,” Pope said. “So, we’re going to keep trying to stretch that way.”