The first look was impressive although it was just an exhibition game.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope made his unofficial debut as coach of the Wildcats on Wednesday night and the lopsided 123-52 win over Kentucky Wesleyan provided a glimpse of things to come this season.
Pope’s squad was tired of five-on-five drills and Blue-White scrimmages. They were eager and hungry to face outside competition and it showed against a Kentucky Wesleyan team that defeated Louisville in an exhibition game last season.
As expected, the Wildcats aimed and fired from the perimeter, launching 42 3-pointers, making half of them. That total was the most since connecting on 21 against North Carolina two days after Christmas in 1989 during Rick Pitino's first season at the helm.
“It's hard to get 42,” Pope said. “It's really hard to do that. Our goal is to be over 30. That can get really complicated to get to 30. I thought we turned a couple down tonight that I wish we had taken.
“But I like the fact that most of the shots were earned. There wasn't a lot of belligerent shooting. It was a lot of shots earned. And we earn them in a bunch of different ways. … I thought our guys did a terrific job earning those shots, although there are several that we left on the table.”
Four players - Jaxson Robinson, Ansley Almonor, Koby Brea and Trent Noah - made three or more triples and combined for 17 3-pointers. Almonor and Robinson paved the way with five each and Noah sank four, including three consecutive in the second half.
“That's what we do,” Noah said. “I really credit Coach Pope and all the coaching staff. They instill confidence in us and that's what you need as a shooter. It’s a fun brand of basketball. It's fun when you can just go down and shoot threes freely. I feel like it's fun to watch, too. It's a win-win.”
The Wildcats also showed an unselfish side with 32 assists on 48 field goals and had just five turnovers while moving the ball rapidly and at a fast pace on offense from start to finish.
”I thought our guys from the very beginning did a tremendous job about making plays for teammates, playing off two feet, winning the gap, being really judicious, and really sharing the ball the way that we hope to, and I anticipate that we will,” Pope said.
Paced by Robinson’s 19 points, eight players finished in double figures for Kentucky in the first of two exhibition games. Otega Oweh followed Robinson with 18, Almonor had 15, Brea scored 13, Noah and Amari Williams scored 12 each, Lamont Butler had 11 and Andrew Carr finished with 10.
“It was a good night for us and I'm really proud of our guys,” Pope said. “Their focus was tremendous. Their decision-making, for the most part, was really good. They were very much on their toes in attack-mode. And that's where we like to be.”
The unofficial debut for Pope and his team was successful, although everything was all new again.
“These guys did a great job taking in all the new and then really executing and that's our standard,” Pope said. “That's what we expect from our guys. I was proud and pleased with it.”
The players also were pleased, including Brea, who learned something new about his coach and teammates.
“I learned just how much fun we're going to have this year,” he said. “It's one thing to do it in practice, but it's another thing to do it in an actual game. I think everybody on our team had a lot of fun today and I think a lot of that is going to happen this year. "
Kentucky Wesleyan coach Drew Cooper left Rupp impressed with what he witnessed, too.
“I wasn’t surprised, because you watch BYU, and you just see the direction that this is going,” he said. “You got really, really good basketball players that are bought into a system and sacrificing individual agendas to make an extra pass or to cut hard. You know, even if they’re not going to be the scorer in the play, they cut hard, and they do things and they create opportunities for their teammates that make it very difficult. So that’s kind of what we saw when we were watching BYU from the film last year. And you know, tonight, it very much resembled that.”
Photo by Ethan Rand - UKAthletics.com
