Kentucky basketball is coming to grips with a hidden challenge of playing in the SEC
Before bringing his team to Lexington to play the Kentucky Wildcats this month, Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams was telling reporters about his cram session for Mark Pope’s team.
Williams’ Aggies lost a hard-fought game to preseason SEC favorite Alabama — the No. 5 team in the country at the time — on Jan. 11. That was a Saturday night. Not long after the buzzer sounded, Williams got to work on scouting the No. 8-ranked Wildcats, who his team would face that Tuesday.
“Really, really have enjoyed studying (them),” the coach said that Monday afternoon of UK’s offense. “I don’t know that we know how to slow down or stop it. Not many teams have had much success with that. But, yeah, they’re not only talented and skilled — that’s easy to figure out — but their style of play is very distinct, and you have to make a lot of decisions just on how you’re gonna try to slow them down.”
The next day, Pope’s Cats beat No. 11-ranked Texas A&M 81-69.
As soon as that one ended, Kentucky’s coaches got to work on their next opponent. The Cats were hosting Alabama that Saturday, and the Crimson Tide would pose a much different challenge than that offered by the Aggies.
Texas A&M doesn’t shoot many 3-pointers, ranking 14th in the SEC in that category. The Aggies don’t play very fast, also ranking 14th in the league in adjusted tempo. Williams has his own way of doing things, and his teams have traditionally done those things very well.
Alabama loves to shoot 3-pointers, leading all high-major teams in long-range attempts more often than not over the past few years. The Crimson Tide play fast. In fact, they’re ranked No. 1 nationally in adjusted tempo, according to the KenPom ratings.
Bama coach Nate Oats approaches the game a lot differently than Williams does, and these are simply surface-level examples of those contrasting philosophies.
Alabama ended up beating Kentucky 102-97. In that game, the Cats were shooting well from 3-point range but didn’t get up nearly as many of those shots as they would have liked. Asked what was preventing them from letting those 3s fly, Pope had a specific answer.
“They’re exactly the opposite of the last two teams we played,” he said, comparing Bama to Texas A&M and Mississippi State, which the Cats had played the previous weekend. “They’ll fan out to the 3 and really try and make it a two-on-two ball-screen game and a one-on-one game at the rim. And we were not as good as we wanted to be about punishing with cutters off of two feet — after the two feet — and we ended up standing.”
Pope went on to say that a little bit of the issue was due to UK’s “patchwork lineups” — the result of persistent foul trouble — and a little bit was due to fatigue.
“A little bit of that was such a different style of play than we faced the last couple games,” Pope continued. “And a little bit is a place we need to get way better at and understand more.”
Much has been made about the sheer number of highly talented teams that exist within the SEC this season. There are nine teams from the league in the AP Top 25 this week. All but three of the 16 teams in the conference have been ranked at some point.
The SEC is as tough as it’s ever been. That’s a challenge for all involved. But perhaps the biggest challenge is the varying playing styles that all of these teams employ — most of them doing so at a very high level — and the short turnaround those coaches have to study each other and then get their teams adequately prepared.
“It’s really difficult,” said UK forward Ansley Almonor. “I feel like it’s an underrated factor that people don’t really pay attention to — like, how drastic of a (difference). Texas A&M, how they play is way different than how Alabama plays. So those are two different scouts. Two different types of practices you have to have. It’s a lot that goes into it. But that’s part of being a great team, is being able to beat all those different types of teams, especially when it comes to March, because you don’t know who you’re gonna get to play in March. So it’s definitely a challenge.”
Mark Pope’s SEC approach
The downside of having to prepare for all of these different styles in short order? Kentucky experienced that at Georgia two weeks ago, losing to a Bulldogs team that looked a whole lot different than the running-and-gunning Florida Gators squad that the Cats beat three days earlier.
The upside of it all — other than the obvious joy and satisfaction that comes from getting that scouting report right and executing it to a victory — is discovering your own weak points and working on them now, before March rolls around.
It starts with being prepared.
“Every game will be different. Every team is gonna be different,” said UK guard Otega Oweh. “So we just gotta lock in when it comes time to learn what they do, their personnel and all that stuff. And you kind of have to have a short memory when it comes to these games, because quick turnarounds — two games a week and all that stuff. So we just have to lock in when it comes to the next scout.”
But even the greatest preparation obviously won’t guarantee victory in this league. And experiencing the action on the court — where everything is moving so fast — will be much different than watching it during a video session. And then it’ll be on to the next opponent, which is likely to feature an entirely different set of strengths and weaknesses.
“It’s so awesome,” Pope said when asked about the challenge of facing so many different coaching styles across the SEC. “… I mean, how fun is this? Right? You think about it. Like, even the Georgia disaster, right? It was fun and learning, and it actually has made us a better team. The Georgia disaster helped us prepare for Mississippi State and for Texas A&M. And Florida as a first game — those guys coming here undefeated — and that epic, one of the most fun games we’ve ever got to play and witness together.
“And they’re all so different, right? And so they test you in different ways, and they expose you in different ways, and you get to learn so much. And I love every second of it.”
That comment came two days before the Alabama game. Not exactly a “disaster” — the Tide are legitimate national title contenders, and there was no shame in losing to them — but the time spent on the court with them probably wasn’t much “fun” for Pope and his players in the moment.
The knowledge gained along the way, however — even amid the failures — can be helpful.
“I’ve said this a bunch, but I feel bad for everybody that’s not in the SEC,” Pope said heading into the Bama game. “And there’s other great leagues. Please don’t take that wrong. But, you know, we’re battered and bruised right now, and we’re only four games into the league. And we’re getting stretched like crazy right now, and we’re only four games in. And we’re learning so much about ourselves and about how to attack this game in different ways, and we’re only four games in. And that’s what you want. I mean, it’s pretty great.”
Whether or not Pope thinks it’s so great six weeks from now might be another story. His team is going to see a lot over that time.
▪ Saturday’s opponent, Vanderbilt, has looked like a totally different team under new head coach Mark Byington, who has established a fast-paced style that looks more like UK, Bama and Florida than any other team in the league. This one could be another track meet, with the winning team in the triple digits.
▪ On Tuesday, the Cats travel to Knoxville, and UK fans know what they’re getting with Rick Barnes and Tennessee, which has traditionally boasted one of the nation’s toughest, most physical defenses. The Vols are No. 3 in the country in defensive efficiency this season, and UT also plays at an incredibly slow tempo — last in the SEC in that category — a pace right in line with Clemson, which handed Kentucky its first loss last month.
▪ After that, the Cats will play Arkansas, an embattled team that is high on talent but low on results this season (though John Calipari’s team did beat Georgia on Wednesday night). The Razorbacks might also be a bit of a challenge to prepare for following this week’s news that freshman guard Boogie Fland — the most-utilized player in the team’s lineup — is likely done for the season with an injury. The Hogs without Fland will probably look much different from the Hogs with Fland, they’ll have the entire week off to concentrate on UK, and there will be the added wild card of Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena.
▪ Three days after that, UK plays at No. 16 Ole Miss, an elite defensive team that excels at creating turnovers. Coach Chris Beard’s roster has more collective Division I experience than any other in the SEC — even this senior-stacked Kentucky team — and they play a highly disciplined brand of basketball, sitting No. 1 nationally in turnover percentage.
Kentucky’s schedule beyond that features a matchup with No. 1-ranked Auburn, return games with Alabama and Tennessee, and plenty of other potential pitfalls — all of them bringing new and different challenges than what the Wildcats will have faced going in.
“It’s a beautiful time to be in the SEC,” Pope said this week. “There are going to be times when it’s super painful. But as long as that pain is turned into us growing and preparing and getting better — it’ll be worth it.”
