Brown: Mark Pope's Kentucky basketball system works. Why that's great news for UK players

Brown: Mark Pope’s Kentucky basketball system works. Why that’s great news for UK players

Posted by Admin December 17, 2024 Basketball

Remember when being labeled a “system” player was a bad thing? Kentucky basketball’s Mark Pope has turned that old-school knock into something else entirely.

Pope’s system has made his players better by helping to enhance skills that, prior to their time at UK this season, laid dormant.

The ball keeps moving as the players do. The options are limitless. It’s why the Wildcats lead the nation in scoring offense, averaging 91.3 points per game, and are eighth nationally with 19.5 assists per game.

Sometimes they play five out, sometimes they plant Amari Williams in the lane, either way the spacing and fluidity of the offense keeps the lane from being cluttered and allows them to run it efficiently.

This is the kind of innovation that former UK coach John Calipari bristled at making during his tenure, and he hasn’t really changed now that he’s at Arkansas. His offense and desire to play more traditionally with two bigs had become stale in today’s landscape.

The college basketball analytics site EvanMiya.com has the Cats ranked as the seventh most efficient offense nationally. That those offensive numbers come from a group of individuals who by and large weren’t special at their previous stops speaks to just how great Pope has made them.

Pope should probably be thankful that all the players with eligibility remaining under Calipari last season either turned pro or transferred. Pope didn’t have to try to squeeze any square pegs into his rotation.

Reserve guard Koby Brea was already a dangerous 3-point shooter at Dayton; in four years, his shooting percentage behind the arc was 43.4 — including 49.8 last season. He couldn’t possibly get any better, right?

The shots Brea is getting in Pope’s system have elevated his 3-point shooting percentage to 53.1 through their first 11 games. And he’s doing it averaging 5.8 3-point attempts per game.

Take anybody in the Cats’ starting five and there’s an area that playing for Pope has helped them improve.

For guards Otega Oweh and Jaxson Robinson, the system has brought out their scoring.

Oweh averaged 8.3 points in two seasons at Oklahoma and leads UK with 15.7 points per game. His assists are also up from a career 0.6 average to 1.8 with the Cats.

Robinson already played two seasons under Pope at BYU, so his UK numbers are comparable to those. But Robinson’s scoring pre-Pope in two seasons — one at Arkansas and one at Texas A&M — presented a different picture. He combined to average just under three points per game; post-Pope it’s nearly 12 points per game.

Forward Andrew Carr’s scoring average decreased a point from his two seasons at Wake Forest, but Pope’s system has helped highlight his passing ability. Carr averages 2.7 assists per game, up from just a 1.3 career average at Wake.

For Williams, it’s rebounding, which jumped from 7 per game at Drexel to 9.1 rebounds per game for the Cats. That’s good for third in the SEC.

Guard Lamont Butler might be the best overall testimony for converting to Pope’s system.

In his four seasons at San Diego State, he only eclipsed 20 points twice. He’s gone from a 7.7 career scoring average with the Aztecs to being second on the team at UK at 15.1 per game.

It’s not just the scoring with Butler, who dropped a career-high 33 points on 10-for-10 shooting, including six 3-pointers, in Saturday’s 93-85 win over Louisville. His 3-point percentage jumped from a career 32.1 to 48.1 this season. He’s also up to 4.1 assists with the Cats after being at 2.6 for his career at SDSU.

Trusting the system has even helped UK make up for not having an obvious star player, the kind of go-to guy everyone knows is up for taking the final shot.

Carr and Oweh made the big baskets (and plays) down the stretch in the Cats’ 77-72 win over Duke.

Brea took the shot that could have won it in regulation against Gonzaga. And it was Robinson who took the shot that sealed the game with 14 seconds left in their 90-89 overtime win.

Pope has given UK fans something to believe in as the calendar turns to SEC play next month. The system really works.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.