Kentucky’s players already proving they have bought into Mark Pope
Kentucky freshman Collin Chandler looks for a teammate to dish the ball to Saturday afternoon in the Wildcats 100-72 win over Bucknell.
Andrew Carr got for the hook shot Saturday on his way to 11 points as part of a the Wildcats 100-point performance.
Outside of Jaxson Robinson, every player on Kentucky’s roster is playing for Mark Pope for the first time this season.
While each believed in Pope enough to sign on at Kentucky and talked highly of him throughout the offseason, it would’ve been impossible to know just how bought-in to their new coach they were until the season tipped off. Now, two games into the campaign, it’s clear that Pope has his group’s attention.
After UK grabbed just seven offensive rebounds and gave up 11 offensive rebounds to Wright State in its season opener Monday, Pope challenged his team to improve on the glass.
“We’d like to be a 30% offensive rebounding percentage team. We’d like to be that consistently. That’s a bad number for our guys, because it doesn’t really mean anything. I would love to live in this space.
If we could be a 14 offensive rebound a game team, it’d be extraordinary, certainly above 10,” Pope said two days before Saturday’s matchup with Bucknell. “We’re just not living in that space at all right now. We didn’t really make much progress last game, either, but it’s something that we’re really focused on, and we will make progress.
“We’re just trying to figure out how to get there, but it’s very important how we play. It’s really important how we play. It gives us staying power and gives us confidence in all the other things we do. Our presence on the offensive glass and our consistency on the defensive glass is really important.
You end up with percentages also, ideally if you can live there, but we’d definitely like to get just raw numbers because box scores just look better. To keep teams under 10 offensive rebounds is probably a bare minimum of acceptability,” Pope said. “To keep teams under 10, those are goals that we’re working on.”
Saturday in a victory over Bucknell, it did that and more.
UK surpassed its seven rebounds in the win over Wright State with over 10 minutes remaining in the opening half and finished the night with 22 offensive boards.
On the night overall, the Wildcats pulled down 57 rebounds, with Amari Williams leading the way with 14 rebounds. In total, Kentucky out-rebounded Bucknell by 22.
“We were talking about it all week after the last game. After the last three games, we haven’t been doing what we should be doing on the boards. So that was just emphasis in practice and even before the game today,” forward Ansley Almonor said. “Who had four offensive rebounds in the victory said postgame.
“That’s something we wanted to go out there and dominate today and that’s what we did.”
Aided by its 22 offensive rebounds, UK scored 19 second-chance points, serving as a key separator in a 100-72 victory.
“I like how our guys are responding. We’ve been on this rebound issue for 10 days now, and what an epic response,” Pope said. “Just a commitment. Guys, as a group, said, ‘ok, we’re gonna go fix this.’ It’s been really impressive to see when we point our guys in a specific direction about their willingness to commit to it and that bodes well for us being able to grow throughout the course of the season.”
Not only did Pope’s Cats’ respond on the offensive glass, but they locked in on the Bucknell scouting report and shut down 7-foot center Noah Williamson.
Williamson entered play averaging 25.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game and having scored 32 points in an overtime victory over Southern Indiana Thursday.
Saturday, Kentucky attacked him immediately on the offensive end, drawing two quick fouls and forcing him to the bench.
In the first half, Kentucky held Williamson scoreless, shooting at an 0-for-6 clip and to just one rebound.
Overall, he finished the night with seven points, shooting 3-for-12 from the field, 1-for-8 from three, and with only five rebounds.
“He’s a terrific player. He’s coming off a huge game.
We talked about it in pregame, but I don’t know if we’ll face another center that’s going to score 32 points in a game anywhere this season against any opponent, there’s not a lot of centers doing that and he’s really capable,” Pope said of Williamson.
“He’s a really skilled veteran player. He’s one of the highest usage guys in the country, so he’s getting a ton of catches to work with, so he’s got a lot of experience that way and I thought Amari Williams started the game brilliantly on both sides of the ball. We wanted to attack really quick, and they were paying attention.
So we got some trail five ISOs, and then they respond to that better later by just sending massive crowds. We didn’t handle that well and then on the defensive end, his bailout is kind of catching this bulls-hand post-catch to be able to face up and space the floor and go to work and Amari was unbelievable at a couple things.
“He would not let him get to his chest. He’s so good at getting your chest, and then once he gets your chest, he can really spin through your body. Amari refused you that. Amari was unbelievable with his arm-bar, keeping his face, and then he was unbelievable about making the game about his feet and not about his length and height. He was unbelievable.
He did a great job against a terrific player.”
Williams’ and Kentucky’s effort to contain Williamson means that Kentucky’s extensive scouting report work is already paying off.
Before its preseason opener against Kentucky Wesleyan, freshman Collin Chandler shared that the team sent opponent scouting reports to its phones.
Between answering the bell on the glass and slowing down Williamson, it is clear Pope’s messaging to his team is getting through, which should be a sign of good things to come.
