Can Kentucky basketball find solution to defensive deficiencies before it's too late?

Can Kentucky basketball find solution to defensive deficiencies before it’s too late?

Posted by author February 7, 2025 Basketball

Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope admits he’s struggling to find solutions for the team’s defensive struggles this season.
The Wildcats are the least disruptive unit in the SEC, forcing the fewest turnovers per game in the 16-team conference.

LEXINGTON — As Kentucky basketball‘s seasonlong struggles defensively have continued unabated, coach Mark Pope conceded Thursday players need to ask more of themselves. And each other. But Pope didn’t let himself off the hook, either.

“We’re at the point of the season where I’m like, ‘Ah, man, maybe there are some misses on my part,'” Pope said. “Certainly, our dedication to everyday shell defense has been something where I’ve kind of failed us a little bit.”

His frustration at failing to find a solution boiled over Tuesday in a 98-84 loss at Ole Miss. The following night, during his weekly radio show, Pope admitted there was “some completely destroyed furniture in the locker room after a recent loss.” His bloody wrist, caught on video from Tuesday’s postgame news conference, was evidence enough. The furniture at The Pavilion just bore the brunt of Pope’s irritation after the Rebels posted their best point total against the Wildcats in 125 meetings. The final score was a fitting capper to a forgettable opener: UK trailed by 23 points, 54-31, at the break — the biggest halftime deficit it’s ever faced against Ole Miss.

And it came during a contest in which the Rebels had 24 assists against one turnover.

Just one game before that, Kentucky allowed Arkansas to knock down more than half of its field-goal attempts overall (55.2%; 32 of 58) and behind the 3-point line (52%; 13 for 25) in an 89-79 triumph for former coach John Calipari at Rupp Arena.

Pope said his group needs to improve everywhere defensively.

“Our ball-screen defense, it’s a requirement of anticipating the pickup and recovering. Part of that being the signal (is) a guarantee,” he said, “and then a full devotion to sprint to recover is really, really important for us.”

As is wreaking more havoc. At just 9.3 turnovers forced per game, no SEC team induces fewer errors from opposing offenses than Kentucky.

“Our presentation on the ball has left us wanting,” Pope said. “We’re the least disruptive team in the league, and in some ways, we’re hemorrhaging in some other spaces. We have a little bit of a modified approach to how we’re dealing with that.”

It’s gotten to the point that Pope, known for his devotion to analytics, has him questioning “my faith in the numbers” as the Wildcats’ defensive deficiencies persist.

“The numbers have really just punched us right in the face,” he said. “I’ve been an analytics guy my whole career and haven’t felt bludgeoned like I have by the numbers, especially recently. We’re actually second-guessing, like ‘a Kentucky effect’ on the numbers. Do we need to modify the numbers we’re seeing just based on us? And I’m not saying just the name across this jersey, but I’m saying the makeup of our team about how we function, am I getting tricked by some of the things that we normally go into games and trust? Or is it an anomaly?”

But numbers aren’t everything.

Emotions are a factor, too.

Fifth-year senior forward Andrew Carr said he believes the Wildcats too often get “discouraged” when opposing teams sink shot after shot after shot.

“I feel like we can do a lot better job of trying to really make people miss, not hope people miss,” Carr said, “and we’ll be able to (make) a couple strides, take a couple steps these next couple of weeks defensively.

“We’re trying to do that, and I think we have the right mindset. … I feel like we do it a lot in practice. We’ve just got to figure out how to (implement) what we want to do in the games.”

As the Wildcats have proven this season — repeatedly — that’s easier said than done.

“We don’t want one bad game to become two, and then two to (become) three,” junior guard Otega Oweh said. “You’ve got to turn the tide eventually. It’s all about how you respond.

“Basketball is a bunch of ups and downs. It’s not always going to be great, so you just have to bounce back and make sure you stay even-keeled, because once you get too high or too low, that’s when you become inconsistent. So, we just have to figure it out.”

A challenge Pope is eager to meet.

A problem solver at heart, Pope has surrounded himself with like-minded individuals on his coaching staff. Pope said they “love that it’s tough.” That’s because the payoff is sweeter.

“I love when the story gets murky. I love when you start to doubt,” he said. “Those are my favorite times because that’s when really special things happen.”

Even if there’s pain along the way.

“It’s the journey that we go on together that’s incredible, right?” Pope said. “And it doesn’t always work out, you know? Sometimes it just doesn’t work out. And that’s never acceptable, but sometimes it doesn’t work out. And that’s why it is so incredibly intoxicating to be a part of it, and it’s why it’s so fun to be in the grind.”

As a team captain for UK’s 1995-96 national championship team, Pope knows what it takes to win at the highest level.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be bumps along the way.

“Winning championships, sometimes it looks easy,” Pope said, “but a lot of times, what you don’t see is that, man, we barely got over the threshold. Like, it could have gone bad a hundred different ways. And so it is tough. … I love winning, and we’d like to get to that as soon as possible.

“But this journey is pretty, pretty great.”

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.