Koby Brea hasn’t been known for his defense or passing throughout his lengthy collegiate career, but those were a few aspects that were on clear display Saturday afternoon.

Brea, who has been the Kentucky Wildcats’ primary sharpshooting threat this season, transformed his game in a bounce-back victory over South Carolina. The Cats took a 33-19 lead into the half at home against the Gamecocks, eventually winning 80-57.

After having a few poor defensive performances as a team, the Cats, especially Brea, showed some improvements on that side of the court. The return of Lamont Butler certainly helped their defensive communication as well.

After the game, when asked about having Butler back and the team’s defense, Pope sounded off on Brea’s defensive intensity and the role that it played in the team’s victory.

“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,” said Pope. “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 picking up 94 feet. It was really smart and intelligent. I can’t be more proud at that.”

Pope even said that Brea had two of his best days of practice this week, and that translated into a big performance on Saturday.

“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,” said Pope. “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 turnovers, 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.”

Coming off the bench, Brea had six assists and five rebounds as well, playing a team-high 30 minutes. He led the team in assists with that figure being a career-best total for the sniper as well.

The 6-foot-6 guard, who came from Dayton where he was a two-time A-10 Sixth Man of the Year, has averaged under two assists per game in all five of his seasons, so this figure is far from the normal for the senior.

It is a testament to his ability to look for teammates and use his shooting to open up the court. However, he’s been more of a playmaker this season while also shooting 45.7% from deep.

Brea’s ability to defend at a high level, as Pope denotes above, and also find his open teammates helped the Cats take their play to a new level. Let’s hope that continues as Kentucky welcomes the top-five Tennessee Volunteers to Rupp Arena on Tuesday.