No. 14 Kentucky will look to snap a two-game skid on Saturday against South Carolina (noon ET, ESPN2). For that to happen, the Cats must have one thing for sure – energy.

During his weekly media opportunity on Thursday, Pope talked about how energy is what drives his team and makes them better.

“For us, the pace of the game is really important, it’s important to how we play,” Pope said. “We function well because of our pace and because of our movement away from the ball. And that takes energy. We’re an energy team. We feed off energy, we live and thrive off energy. The way we were built was to beat teams through wave after wave of energy.”

With injuries to Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr and Kerr Kriisa, the Cats have shortened their bench at times this season. However, Pope and the staff are now trending in the other direction, trying to create more energy by incorporating more players.

“We went three or four games where we were playing some guys over the 30-minute mark and we go back and forth with ourselves,” Pope said. “Right now, we think we have good, young players so we would like to expand their minutes so we can have more intensity and more energy on the court more consistently from different guys. Time will tell if that’s a winning strategy or not. For us to be at the very best we can be with the players we have, with the way we’re built, the way we’re designed, the way our skillsets flow, the more energy we can infuse in this game is a really key part of it and so we’re going to keep trying to stretch that way and I think we can.”

Energy is not just running up and down the court. Energy can, and should, be generated when the Cats are running their offense as well.

“In the half court, you create a ton of energy, too,” Pope said. “And we’ve had real success doing that this year. You have to be more diligent and forceful to do it.”

South Carolina’s record is a bit deceiving, according to Pope. While the Gamecocks are 10-12 and 0-9 in the Southeastern Conference, Pope has seen them hang with some of the best teams in the country.

“They’ve had every team in this league on the ropes,” Pope said. “They had Auburn on the ropes, they had Florida on the ropes. A good team, well-coached just like every team in this league.”

Pope and the Cats hope that bringing more energy to the floor on Saturday can be a successful formula against South Carolina.