Kentucky basketball has ‘answered the bell’ by showing improved physicality in SEC play
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Game day: No. 8 Kentucky 81, No. 11 Texas A&M 69
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Texas A&M in Rupp Arena.
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Seemingly to a man, members of this year’s Kentucky basketball team heard the outside noise — which was supported by facts — surrounding the Wildcats’ lack of physicality to begin SEC play.
Sure, UK won its SEC opener earlier this month against Florida in an offensive shootout at Rupp Arena, but the Cats got worked on the glass: The Gators pulled down 15 offensive rebounds and held a 31-12 advantage in second-chance points.
When Kentucky suffered a setback in its first road game of league play — an 82-69 loss at Georgia on Jan. 7 — that narrative grew. Georgia outrebounded UK by a 41-34 margin, with three Bulldogs claiming at least seven rebounds.
“Clearly that’s a major, major issue for us, is this glass,” a stern-faced Mark Pope said after that loss.
Questions soon followed about whether or not Pope’s Kentucky squad had the right disposition to handle the rigors of rough-and-tumble SEC play this season.
And over the past few days, Pope’s charges have responded in a big way to those who doubted their toughness on the boards.
Saturday’s five-point victory at now-No. 15 Mississippi State saw the Wildcats win the rebounding battle by eight, 41-33.
Pope’s team answered the bell again Tuesday night at Rupp Arena, passing an even sterner examination of their physicality in a 81-69 triumph against No. 11 Texas A&M, which played without senior guard Wade Taylor IV for a third straight game.
By any measurable statistic, Kentucky had its way rebounding against Texas A&M, a team that’s universally recognized as the best in the country on the glass.
UK outrebounded Texas A&M overall 40-30. The Wildcats had 12 offensive rebounds to the Aggies’ 11. The Cats won second-chance points, too, with 13 of those compared to A&M’s 11.
It was a display of force against an A&M squad that entered the game ranked first in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage (44.4%). The Aggies had entered the game with an average rebounding margin of plus-10 on the glass.
“When our guys dig into a focus, it might not be an immediate payoff in a day,” Pope said Tuesday about UK’s rebounding. “But over the course of a week or two weeks or a month, these guys, every single time, have kind of answered the bell and actually got better.”
Kentucky basketball’s rebounding process in practice
The work that Kentucky has authored on the glass over the last two games has been weeks in the making.
Pope peeled back some layers of that process when asked by the Herald-Leader during his postgame press conference Tuesday.
The story starts with Matt Santoro, an assistant video coordinator for UK. As Pope tells it, The Matt Santoro Project takes center stage during Kentucky practices, which feature seven live segments.
During practice, Santoro and his team chart each rebound that’s available.
“It’s not just getting a rebound,” Pope explains, with excitement clear on his face. “It’s actually doing their job: blocking out, getting a hit.”
Santoro then either hops on the PA system at Rupp Arena or shouts into a megaphone when practice is held inside the Joe Craft Center to announce how UK players fared with rebounding.
“We believe what you focus on broadens,” Pope said. “And then our staff has done an unbelievable job about, in the beginning, cherry-picking unbelievable efforts, so our guys could see what it looks like to be successful. Now it’s getting easy, and now the guys are having fun with it.”
The behind-the-scenes rebounding work doesn’t stop there, either.
Pope shouted out another behind-the-scenes UK staffer — creative content director Addison Feldhaus — for the production of certificates designating a “hit champion” from each UK game.
Fifth-year forward Ansley Almonor has earned the certificate two straight times. UK’s “hit champion” from the Texas A&M game will be named Thursday.
All UK basketball players expected to help grab rebounds
The results from this detail-oriented work have been clear over the last two games, with fifth-year big man Amari Williams leading the way.
The Drexel transfer had 12 rebounds in each of the wins against Mississippi State and Texas A&M.
“Oh, I love him,” A&M head coach Buzz Williams exclaimed Tuesday after identifying Amari’s stat line.
“He looked like a man-child on the glass, didn’t he?” Pope remarked.
“You just can’t relax. I don’t think you can stand up for any play because the bigs are great out here. They’re just going to seal you and duck you in,” Amari Williams said of rebounding in the SEC. “So that’s something I’ve done better (at), but I’m still learning at the same time.”
Rebounding isn’t, and can’t be, solely driven by Kentucky’s bigs. That’s also been apparent in UK’s recent bounce-back performances on the boards.
Junior guard Otega Oweh set a season-high with eight rebounds Saturday in Starkville. On Tuesday, fifth-year guard Jaxson Robinson complemented his game-high 22 points by tying his career high with eight rebounds.
“One of the things we’ve been talking about is our guards making a bigger impact … That is a massive difference-maker for us on the glass,” Pope said.
The four-game run that Kentucky had to open SEC play has given the Wildcats an up-close look at some of the best rebounding teams in the nation. Florida (fourth), Georgia (ninth), Mississippi State (33rd) and Texas A&M (first) all ranked in the top 35 in the country in offensive rebounding percentage at the close of Tuesday’s games.
More tests are on the way, too. Alabama is 19th nationally in offensive rebounding percentage (37.3%). Tennessee is seventh. Kentucky will play each of them in the next two weeks.
During his postgame remarks Tuesday, Buzz Williams — the sixth-year Texas A&M coach whose team has ranked 30th, fifth and first in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage in the last three seasons — made an astute point about the way Kentucky approaches rebounding.
Sure, players like Amari Williams, fifth-year forward Andrew Carr and sophomore center Brandon Garrison are expected to compete inside for loose balls around the rim. But the Aggies’ head coach pointed out that plenty of Kentucky’s potential rebounds exist further from the basket, a result of UK’s shot diet that encourages 3-point shooting.
“I think you probably have to judge how (Kentucky) rebounds a little differently than we do,” Williams said. “… If you’re playing fast and you’re shooting a high volume of 3s, and your offense is five-out, I think you probably handle rebounding differently than we do … I do think they play with physicality, relative to that concept. I think that concept probably fits from a rebounding standpoint, relative to what they’re doing prior to the rise of a shot.”
Whether it’s the outcome following weeks of focus in practice, or a quirk coming from Kentucky’s offensive style, the Wildcats are finding their way to loose balls.
It’s something that must continue if Kentucky is to continue its pursuit of a first regular-season SEC championship since 2020.
“It’s really fun when you see these results, yeah?” Pope concluded Tuesday, holding up a stat sheet for all to see.
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 12:28 AM.
