There were lessons to be learned in UK’s exhibition finale. For the players and the fans.
The second and final exhibition game of Kentucky’s preseason wasn’t going quite like the first.
The Wildcats started a tad slow in their opener against Kentucky Wesleyan last week, but they turned on the gas quick and ultimately won by a whopping 71 points.
On Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, the Cats defeated Minnesota State Mankato — the reigning NCAA Division II national champions — 98-67 in another blowout. But the way they got there was a little different.
At the under-8 timeout of the first half — 6:23 left until halftime — UK led just 22-20. The Cats, who were so careful with the ball against Wesleyan, had matched their turnover total from that game (five) within the first seven and a half minutes of this one. Kentucky, which made 21 of 42 3-pointers last week, started just 2-for-13 from beyond the arc against Minnesota State.
Rupp Arena was getting restless. The ship was righted rather quickly.
The Cats didn’t stop shooting 3s — and coach Mark Pope made it clear afterward that they never will — they simply settled down and fell back on the principles they’ve been practicing all summer and fall.
“I wasn’t really thrilled with us in the first half from the 3-point line,” Pope said. “You know, it happens all the time. It happens to every team I’ve ever coached. You go bang 21 and then you think it’s like, ‘Everything in the supermarket is free. Just grab it. Throw it in the bag, right?’ We did a much better job as the game went on about earning shots for each other. There’s a huge difference. And it might be an imperceptible difference when you just isolate shots. But how you earn those shots matters. Like, the karma of this game matters. It’s wildly important.”
During that timeout, Pope didn’t tell his team to stop shooting. He just wanted to see them work harder to get better shots for their teammates.
The first possession out of that timeout, freshman Trent Noah buried a 3-pointer. Two possessions later, a UK offensive rebound led to a 3 from Lamont Butler. And then — in a span of two minutes and 25 seconds — Jaxson Robinson nailed three 3s in a row. Bang, bang, bang.
By the time the run was finished, the Cats had scored 18 straight points and led by 20. The game against Minnesota State — the preseason No. 1 team in the Division II rankings — was never close after that.
After an exhibition opener that taught these Cats relatively little — how much can you really learn from a 71-point victory? — there were a couple of lessons to be found in that slow start.
UK’s players faced some adversity for the first time together.
“Coach preached it to us during the huddle in the first half,” Robinson said. “He was saying, like, this is something that we needed — just to be able to wake up. We didn’t play great in the first few minutes, so just find ways to be better. That’s it.”
Robinson, the only UK player who’s ever played for Pope — he was BYU’s leading scorer last season — ended up going 8-for-12 from 3-point range against Minnesota State, leading the Wildcats with 24 points.
The Pope that spoke to his players in the huddle during that timeout is the same Pope that he played for in two seasons at BYU and the same Pope that will be present for Kentucky’s most important moments of the 2024-25 season.
“It’s the exact same Pope. Nothing’s changed. Nothing’s different,” Robinson said. “I think that’s one of the things that’s made him so elite as a coach. No matter where he’s been, he’s been the exact same. It’s just confidence that he puts into each of his players, and it just frees everybody’s game up.”
And Robinson didn’t feel any pressure himself. Not because it was October against a Division II opponent in a game that didn’t really count for the record books, but because he knows and trusts the system. He stuck with it and didn’t force anything.
“It was just the shots that I found within the offense,” Robinson said. “My teammates got me open, so I’m just gonna shoot it. Nothing more than that.”
The 21-year-old guard and fifth-year college player said Pope has been preaching about the “karma” of the game ever since he met him. His teammates have picked up on it.
“I mean, it’s just the way that you play basketball. It’s not all about scoring,” he said. “So making the hard cut for your teammate, boxing out your man so somebody else can grab the rebound, just little stuff like that. He thinks that the karma of doing the good things will eventually come back to you. So just finding little ways to get my teammates involved. And not only me, but the rest of my teammates feel the same way. So that’s just how we play.”
The other lesson Tuesday night was learned by the fans.
Their Cats missed 11 of the first 13 3-pointers they took. And they kept shooting. And they will keep shooting in similar situations this season. And, buckle up, Big Blue Nation, because the final exhibition game of the preseason won’t be the last time such a start occurs.
Pope is presiding over a team that wants to attempt 35 3-pointers per game, and you don’t hit that number by getting shy when the shots don’t go in.
“For us today, the messaging was, ‘Guys, these are not the shots that we take.’ It’s a very nuanced conversation,” Pope said. “You know, we’re gonna go 2-for-13 in the first nine minutes sometimes from the 3-point line, when it is shots that we’re earning. And we’re gonna keep shooting. It’s a beautiful way to play. And what BBN is going to learn is they’re going to just be like, ‘OK, this is really hard right now. But it’s coming.’ And then there will suddenly be a barrage of makes, and it’s mayhem and chaos in the gym. And we just know it’s coming — like we train that way, we study that way, we work that way.”
And this was the first lesson: fans groaning about yet another miss at one moment and filling the arena with cheers over yet another make a few moments later.
“I think that’s the beauty of our team,” starting forward Andrew Carr said. “And something that we preach is just, you know, the shots aren’t always going to go in. But we’re going to try and continue to look like us on offense as much as possible. And so there might be a stretch where we go 2-for-13, and then we go 5-for-6 from 3, and that’s kind of how the game goes. But as long as we’re getting those shots on our terms, we’re able to live with the outcome.”
There was a lot more to Tuesday night’s game.
The offensively electric Kerr Kriisa made his debut after being sidelined by a hamstring injury.
“He’s such an infusion of energy, right?” Pope said after Kriisa dished out six assists — with no turnovers — in 16 minutes, playing with an incredible pace to get UK’s offense going.
Otega Oweh was impressive again — 15 points, 7-for-8 from the floor, with six assists and three steals — making an impact on both ends of the court after providing the spark for the Cats against Wesleyan last week. Carr had 12 of his 14 points in the second half, eight of those points after halftime coming courtesy of four dunks.
After that flurry of early turnovers, the Cats committed just one over a period of more than 30 minutes. They also had 28 assists on 37 made baskets and made 75% of their 2-point shots.
Pope was pleased with all of that.
There were some negatives, too.
The Kentucky coach was not happy with the offensive rebounding. UK’s players pulled in only six of those, despite missing 24 3-pointers.
“That’s not us at all,” he lamented.
But Pope also acknowledged that the game got a little “weird” at the beginning. Part of the reason for that was the biggest cause for concern of the night: Starting center Amari Williams left the floor clutching his right knee early in the first half and didn’t play again.
Williams was back on the bench for the second half, and Pope said preliminary tests were encouraging. “I think he’s doing fine. … We’re hopeful that he’ll be back soon.”
Without their starting 5 — a key piece of Pope’s innovative offense — the Cats looked a little off. But they had three turnovers while Williams was on the court. Still, once they found their way, they recaptured the magic of six days earlier, when they lit up Wesleyan in Pope’s debut.
Minnesota State coach Matt Margenthaler was on the wrong end of the 31-point rout Tuesday night — and the Cats led by as much as 40 at one point — but he was smiling after the game.
He liked what he saw from the other side.
“Mark’s got his guys believing in that 3-point shot. And they just continue to bomb ’em and bomb ’em and bomb ’em. And you’re going to make them,” Margenthaler said. “… The percentages are there for you. And I’m not a real smart guy … but that’s smart basketball.”
How demoralizing can it be playing against a team capable of going off like that at any moment? The bald coach smiled. “I had more hair before the game started. Look at me now, man.”
Margenthaler said he wasn’t sure how many games Pope’s team would win this season — “25, 30 … I don’t know” — but he’s looking forward to seeing his Wildcats take the court.
“I just think they play the game the right way. I really do. … Mark’s gonna get this going big time. And you can just tell — their kids, they’re selfless, too. There were a couple of possessions they had where four or five guys touched the ball. I mean, that’s fun basketball.”
UK season opener
Wright State at No. 23 Kentucky
When: 7 p.m. Monday
TV: ESPNU
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: Kentucky leads 4-0
Last meeting: Kentucky won 78-63 on Nov. 20, 2015, in Lexington
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 11:29 PM.
