Kentucky men’s basketball opened its regular season scoring an explosive 100 points in back-to-back blowout victories.
Prior to the season, Head Coach Mark Pope emphasized that he wanted his squad to shoot often and spread the floor. With that in mind, a fresh-faced Kentucky team handpicked and curated by Pope has numerous 3-point shooters and offensive go-getters.
In their 100-72 runaway win over Bucknell, the Wildcats pushed the ball quickly. Guard Jaxson Robinson scored seven points within the opening eight minutes of the game, leading Kentucky on a 21-4 run.
“When you have guys that are about winning, then you have the luxury of reading the game and figure out what the game’s telling you and how you’re going to actually attack the game,” Pope said.
The Wildcats didn’t impress from three in the first half, only shooting 6-19, however, Kentucky recuperated for its mishaps by collecting 12 offensive rebounds, one less than Bucknell’s total rebounds at the half.
“For these guys to respond to the challenge… we’re just not getting where we need to get on the glass,” Pope said. “And for these guys to come, almost put up 60 rebounds today, it’s incredibly gratifying as a coach, it’s a really important step for us as a team.”
Pope shifted his offense to attack the interior toward the end of the half amid its 3-point blemishes. The Wildcats finished the half scoring 26 points in the paint.
Kentucky’s first true test of the season will come in its next matchup against No. 7 Duke in the Champions Classic. It will be Kentucky’s first ranked contest under Pope and potentially its toughest non-conference opponent of the season.
The Blue Devils have a high octane offense of their own.
Duke, led by third year head coach Jon Scheyer, averaged 98 points on a solid 52% from the field in its first two games of the season, which resulted in blowout victories. Moreover, the Blue Devils are shooting 42% from deep on an average of 14 made threes per game.
It’s not a one-man operation in Durham either as the Blue Devils have five players averaging double digits.
“We know it’s going to be a tough game and we know we have to show up, so we just gotta stay true to ourselves,” Kentucky guard Koby Brea said. “If we do that, we’ll be fine.”
The Champions Classic may be a tale of two uber offenses fighting in a shootout or foretelling of which team has the more formidable defense. Duke has only allowed an average of 60 points to its opponents while Kentucky allowed 72 to Bucknell and 62 to Wright State.
In the second half, the Cats’ deep ball improved to 7-17 due in part to Brea going a perfect 3-3 from the perimeter.
“So, it’s been a lot of fun to play in this system and just to see everybody,” Brea said. “Everybody’s getting shots, so everybody’s happy, we just got to keep doing the right things. The ball is going to find the right person every time, just have to stay patient, stay in the game, we’re all going to be good.”
Brea would record 20 points on 6-8 shooting from deep, both game highs. In fact, Brea was the only Wildcat to shoot higher than 40% from three. Overall, Kentucky finished 36% beyond the arc.
“There were times tonight where we were dealing with loads of frustration, actually. We had an onslaught of frustration, which was really good for us,” Pope said. “I thought that we had some guys deal with it well over time, eventually, we’ll be able to deal with it quicker.”
Notably, guard Otega Oweh failed to hit a three, going 0-4 for the game. Oweh was one of four Kentucky shooters to strike out from deep.
Kentucky found other ways to score, though, as an especially unique facet of scoring came from 19 second-chance points thanks to an impressive 22 offensive rebounds.
Namely, forward Amari Williams impacted the Kentucky offense, posting a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds on zero 3-point attempts.
“We’re playing good basketball right now. We have a chance to grow into a great team now,” Pope said. “We’ve got to earn it, work on it, we gotta get better every day.”
Moving forward, the Wildcats have to continue to be innovative on offense to find wins, especially against hard-nosed ranked matchups like Duke and Gonzaga in the forthcoming months.
The Wildcats will play against Duke in the Champions Classic on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. ESPN will air the game live with tipoff slated for 9 p.m.
