The Wildcats  now 16-7 overall and 5-5 in SEC play rolled over South Carolina, 80-57, inside Rupp Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Gamecocks remain the only SEC team without a victory in conference play.

Defense was the story for the Cats in this one, with the Gamecocks shooting 32.8% from the field and 18.2% on 3-pointers. South Carolina recorded more turnovers (nine) than assists (seven), and a major part of this statistical story was the return of UK fifth-year guard Lamont Butler.

After missing the last three games with a left shoulder injury, Butler returned to the UK starting lineup and provided crucial on-ball pressure for the Wildcats, who needed a bounce-back performance after Tuesday’s dismal effort at No. 25 Ole Miss.

Mark Pope’s team got exactly that Saturday, with junior guard Otega Oweh again leading the way offensively with 17 points. Sophomore forward Brandon Garrison also was a big contributor with a season-best 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting.

After the game, Pope met with media members at Rupp Arena to dissect a comfortable conference win for the Cats. Here’s everything he said.

Opening statement.

South Carolina, tough team. Really talented guys. Lamont is an unbelievable coach. They have had some adversity but they are still fighting and they are going to find their way in some wins as we go down the second half of the season. Congratulations to them. I’m really proud of our guys and I felt like they responded in a brilliant, brilliant way to some of the things they were trying to do. I was really, really proud of our guys. I will take questions.

Question about Kentucky’s defensive performance and the role that Lamont Butler’s return played in it.

I thought our guys were really focused for the most part. We had some lapses and we can get much better. They bought into being a little bit more disruptive and a little bit more aggressive at the point of attack. Our rotations were OK-ish in a growing process. I thought our bigs were pretty diligent in their assignments, they had complicated assignments tonight. Their job description was pretty lengthy tonight and I thought they were terrific. It certainly helps having Lamont back. The defensive start of the game, no doubt, no question asked is, I mean this Koby Brea was unbelievable tonight. He was incredible on the defensive end. His gaps were incredible and his digs were incredible. We were bringing in a third defender to ball screens to cover the short role he was unbelievable at that and his ball pressure was great. It was smart, it wasn’t belligerent. Kind of like, pickup 94 feet. It was really smart and intelligent. I can’t be more proud at that. We had a chance to talk a couple of days ago just about the challenges ahead of us. He’s had his best two days of practice. The last two days on the defensive end. I thought it carried into the game and I thought he was brilliant. When you do that you end up playing great. I mean, he’s six assists and zero turnover and by the end of the game he was throwing no look passes, right? He was really forceful downhill. So all of that stuff was an add on to him being so, so good defensively. I thought he was exceptional. Very much helped us having Lamont back. Just his presence. We just taped him up and rolled him out there. But his presence really helped us for sure.

Question about how Kentucky’s versatility helped UK deal with Butler’s absence and how it could help UK later this season.

Certainly, we have a real comfort level with Jaxson at the point now that we didn’t have before because he’s been there 40 minutes a game for the last four games, right? That helps us and gives us a little bit more leeway in kind of how we work the rotation. I would just like to get those two guys healthy. It’s nice to have them on the floor, that’s step one, can we get them on the floor healthy would be beautiful.

Question about Pope’s coaching approach.

I think that great coaches have a magical touch about that. Right? We are a work in progress here. What really makes great coaches is, it’s just like great teachers. It’s great students is probably way more important component of a student-teacher relationship. It’s great students, it’s students that are hungry and passionate and willing and humble and curious that we talk about all the time. And you also get to points in your journey where you might be more willing and desperate to listen and try a new path, right? That’s why, I mean, I’m going to get really philosophical and that’s why it’s so fun to coach because the game kind of rips you to pieces and it put you in a really vulnerable spot and it makes you humble. And it makes you willing to try new things and desperately search for answers. And those are really fun students to have.

Question about Kentucky’s bench production and Trent Noah, specifically.

I thought Trent was really solid tonight. I thought he was really really solid. He brings, you know his energy never wavers and that’s a real gift as a coach trying to piece together a game to know you know exactly what you are going to get when you put Trent on the floor. That includes some young mistakes and includes some places where he’s uncomfortable. You know, his first possession against a 1-3-1, he kinda froze up a little bit, that’s what young guys do. Right? You know that. But his energy is always the same. It’s always the same every day in practice. And his focus is always the same and he’s been a real gift. And I thought Brandon Garrison was terrific tonight. Minus one moment that we would like to take back, I thought he was actually really really special tonight.

Question about Brandon Garrison and the energy he provides.

It’s all good Brandon, it’s all good. We don’t love people in slices. If that’s what makes people great is the whole thing, right? And he’s, I mean if you spent two seconds with Brandon Garrison you can’t help but love him because he’s got a joy and innocence and passion about him and a willingness and he’s just, like, there is not a duplicitous bone in his body in the sense of like how he approaches people. You know, when you see his face he’s wide-eyed and big smile and he’s just kind of like, you know going to tell you how he is and how he’s feeling and what he’s doing. He got a real joy to him and he’s a real special young man and a real pleasure to coach them. And he’s growing, you know, sometimes we talk about some of the growth that happens underground. Like the roots growing. We are seeing moments from him but his foundation right now is growing so solid and so wide. He’s preparing himself for major major jumps. And he’s got a really terrific future. He’s got a future that’s going to be so stunning that he won’t be out of his mind excited when he bangs a three because that will become really really normal.

Question about Garrison’s growth for Kentucky over the season.

Yeah, we got to play probably more minutes tonight then we played all season with Brandon and Amari on the floor together which is, I don’t know, is six minutes , maybe seven minutes. But they were actually really effective and BG was really effective and explosive with his dunk game. I thought with his defensive assignment tonight. We were blitzing certain ball screens and we were down and we blitzed. In the second half, he had a blitz away from our bench on the left wing where is was really really aggressive, got in a trap and stayed a little bit too long in the trap. We got behind on the rotation and then he came from behind and made the next effort. Coach Mikhail McLean was just in his own beautiful way stressing our guys on multiple efforts through the rebound and he made a multiple effort play and came from behind and blocked a shot and it was really important for us and an important moment in the game but he is starting to understand how to string together efforts in the same play and that’s pretty exciting for us. He’s been, I don’t know what is actually numbers are tonight. But he’s 1-0 tonight. But he’s got a real flavor for passing out of all of our actions and he’s pretty disciplined about it for him to be a zero turnover guy as much as he handles the ball, is really special. He was much better with his roles tonight. Sometimes he starts floating around but he rolled hard tonight and guys found him, he was terrific.

Question about Amari Williams’ recent play for UK.

He’s really big. At one point, with four minutes left. My staff was yelling at me, you got to get Lamont out, you got to get Jaxson out. So that leaves us with zero point guards on the floor and now it was like nope, we’ve got Amari and put the ball in his hands and let him kinda run it. Man, we’ve asked so much out of him and he just keeps delivering. I thought he was really terrific tonight. You know, he’s still an even one-to-one assist turnover ratio tonight and he comes off of a 10-3 game and you know, he didn’t shoot it as well as he did the other night but he was still really, really effective and impactful. I thought the best thing he did tonight is he rolled hard and actually caught balls. He was really aggressive going to catch balls and that’s important.

Question about how important it was for Kentucky to win on Saturday.

It means a lot, this is really important to us. Every game is the biggest game we’ve ever played. But as you go through the course of the season it was important for us, it’s important in a lot of ways. You know, I woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning after sleeping for two hours and couldn’t go back to sleep because I really genuinely didn’t know if I was going to walk into the gym and have no Lamont, and no Jaxson, and no Kerr. Right? You know, that would have been a really beautiful challenge for us. This game is really important to us. One because it’s a win. And two, it got those guys on the floor, they got through the game and they are still alive and every day we can get them to where they, you know, be a little healthier is a bonus. That’s probably one of the best parts of the game but the fact we can do it with a win is really really important to us. The fact that Lamont can get on the floor. I might have teased Lamont about the first lay-up at the rim. Did you guys remember that? It was really shaky but that’s what happens when you haven’t dribbled the ball for two weeks. Right? He was terrific. He got better and better. You know, having him a couple of game reps, we know how potent he is and he’s going to learn how to do it a different way. He’s wearing a brace that is like a tank on his shoulder but it’s really nice to have him back. It was important for a whole bunch of reasons. And this South Carolina team is really good. They lost by Auburn by two and they were up five against Florida with one minute left. I mean, they have been competitive every single game and it’s a good team with really talented players and there is no easy games in this league. This is certainly not one of them and we are happy to get a win for all of those reasons. OK, thanks guys.