In mid April, Kentucky men’s basketball was put into an interesting predicament.
When hall of fame head coach John Calipari opted to use the cover of night — and chicken tender money — to get out of a hairy situation in Lexington after Kentucky once again collapsed in March and failed to live up to expectations, every single scholarship player at UK either entered the transfer portal or declared for the NBA Draft.
When new head coach Mark Pope was hired, he reached out to many of these departing transfers and decommitting recruits and almost convinced a few to stay, but he was only successful with one incoming commit: Kentucky native Travis Perry. Perry, along with returning walk-ons Walker Horn and Grant Darbyshire, would be all the familiarity Pope would get.
The former BYU head coach was then forced to do something that coaches a decade ago would completely balk at the concept of: build an entire roster, from scratch, that can not only compete in the SEC, but compete in the SEC in the span of ONE offseason.
This was no easy feat, but Pope managed to convince numerous big-name transfers to choose Lexington and, pulling a few diamonds in the rough as well, built a roster that, while maybe not projected to hoist the national title, has fans feeling confident in the year to come.
With essentially zero familiarity and a bunch of players from all across the country at different schools, naturally, questions began to arise surrounding how well this new gaggle of Cats would be able to work together.
The answer, it seems, is very well.
“The chemistry is actually really good,” former Oklahoma Sooner Otega Oweh said. “The way we play, you have to have chemistry, so we’ve done a good job of making sure we hang out with each other and know our tendencies and stuff like that. Overall, we’re all really connected.”
With Pope running a complicated offense that requires full buy-in from players, the ability to cooperate as a unit — rather than a bunch of individuals — is of the utmost importance, something former Fairleigh Dickinson Knight Ansley Almonor felt was intentional.
“I think (it was intentional),” Almonor said. “That’s why this summer is really important, Coach places a really big emphasis on the summer. He knows his offense is really complex with a lot of different things that we’re gonna learn and he’s been a great teacher so far. These are things we have to know and have to be second nature for us when the season comes.”
With building chemistry arguably just as important at this stage in the season as learning plays, it’s little surprise that Pope has pulled a few tricks out of his sleeve to help the players bond.
One such surprise came on Wednesday when players were taken to Kroger Field for what they thought was just standard conditioning. Instead, Pope, donning a football helmet, brought out a few pigskins, setting the stage for perhaps one of the most fun workouts the team will have all season.
“It was fun,” Almonor said. “We were surprised, we thought we were out there to just run up and down the field and they came out with the football and we went, ‘Oh, it’s actually going to be some fun!’ It was a nice little fun activity we got to have.”
Oweh, brother of Baltimore Ravens linebacker Odafe Oweh, said that the football practice was far from the only team-building activity Kentucky has done this season as the squad has also “been bowling a couple of times” and mentioned how multiple players enjoy golfing together when not practicing.
He also credited Pope’s ability to bring guys together and get the best out of his players, something that may lift a weight off the shoulders of many fans less interested in studying players that simply see transfers from the likes of Drexel and Fairleigh Dickinson at face value.
“He’s a different kind of coach,” Oweh said. “He allows the guys to play, he pumps a lot of confidence into his players. The system is so pro based. He gives you the confidence and the ability to do the things that you’re very strong at.”
The players also felt as though the unique situation of having such a rag-tag group of players from all over the country is a luxury for this team as opposed to a hindrance, especially in Pope’s system.
“The really great advantage we have this year is (we have) a lot of people who’ve been through it,” former Wake Forest Demon Deacon Andrew Carr said. “(We have) a lot of people who know what the grind is like and know that not every day in July is gonna be great, (but) you just got to continue to get better and not get discouraged. You don’t want to be playing your best basketball in November, you want to be playing your best basketball in March.”
With still plenty of work to be done, Kentucky will continue to practice, including against alumni squad La Familia of “The Basketball Tournament” this summer, with the experience of the former stars sure to benefit the new squad as it paves the way for the new era of Kentucky basketball.
The Cats will open the 2024-25 season at Rupp Arena on Nov. 4 against Wright State. Exhibitions have yet to be announced.
