A signature feature of Mark Pope’s offense has fallen flat for UK basketball
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK basketball’s offense has struggled with off-ball movement against top opponents.
- Mark Pope’s offense is based on off-ball actions such as cutting and screening.
- Kentucky has lost both of its games this season against high-major opponents.
We’re six games into this Kentucky basketball season, and a surprising roadblock has hindered the Wildcats’ performance on the offensive end.
UK, ranked 19th in this week’s Associated Press Top 25, simply isn’t generating the kind of off-ball movement expected from a Mark Pope-led team.
Sure, the Cats have performed reasonably well on that end of the floor in “buy game” romps against Nicholls, Valparaiso, Eastern Illinois and Loyola (Maryland). But in its two marquee matchups against Louisville and Michigan State, Kentucky hasn’t been sharp enough offensively.
And the answer lies away from the ball.
“The width that we’re approaching within the floor was completely missing in our last game,” Pope said last week following Kentucky’s lopsided loss to Michigan State in the Champions Classic. “Us being decisive, on not just kind of where we earn catches, but also being decisive of what we’re doing out of a ball screen, for example, being decisive about lifting to a second lift. Most recently, we fell into this place of being just indecisive in everything we did.”
Kentucky’s 0.971 points per possession against the Spartans was its worst mark of the young season. (UK averaged only 0.959 points per possession in its home exhibition loss to Georgetown University.)
Pope spoke about the lack of consistency UK had in its off-ball movements against Michigan State. There were times UK didn’t commit to setting a certain type of screen, and others where the Wildcats didn’t space the floor correctly.
He called it a “beginning point” for his team to learn from. But it’s clear that a repeat of that offensive showing won’t fly in December, when UK’s schedule features a quartet of ranked opponents.
“It was the first game that we’ve had since I’ve been the coach here where we didn’t have a single double-paint touch in a possession and a half,” Pope added. “… I think a lot of it comes from just not being decisive.”
UK basketball has struggled with its off-ball movement on offense
During his five seasons as the head coach at BYU, Pope’s innovative five-out approach on offense placed a premium on off-ball actions such as cutting and screening with impressive end results: From the 2019-20 through 2023-24 seasons, the Cougars ranked in the top 25 nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency (per KenPom) on three occasions.
Last season, Pope’s first UK squad ranked 10th in the country in that metric while averaging nearly 85 points per game. In early February of last season, six Wildcats were averaging double figures in scoring.
Those distinct Pope principles of cutting, screening and spacing were in full effect.
“I think that’s what is a part of our engine of our offense,” sophomore Trent Noah said. “We run a lot of the zoom action. So whenever you’re running stuff like that, you have to be flying off of the screens to make it work. We call them Kentucky cuts. So we pride ourselves on cut assists.”
Noah, one of four returnees from Pope’s first Kentucky team, explained that cut assists feed into another of Kentucky’s offensive pillars, making plays for teammates.
“You don’t even have to have the ball to get somebody open,” Noah added. “You can attract two, some miscommunication can lead to an open shot. When our offense is working at our best, we’re getting a lot of cut assists.”
“Cutting, it’s essential to us. That’s what we do is we cut,” said sophomore guard Collin Chandler, another returnee. “… It’s just something that we just keep going back to, back to, back to. It’s just so hard to guard every time down the floor. It’s tiring to guard (with) guys cutting so hard. That’s something that we just wait for, is we wait for a team to break down.”
Kentucky guards adapt to decision-making roles with Jaland Lowe out
Of course, it helps to have your starting point guard in the fold to ensure all these off-ball actions run smoothly.
Jaland Lowe, a junior transfer from Pittsburgh, has played in only two games for the Wildcats this season due to a pair of right shoulder injuries.
This has thrust the likes of senior Denzel Aberdeen, Chandler and freshman Jasper Johnson into primary ballhandling duties for UK.
“Cutting is very important,” said Aberdeen, who is UK’s starting point guard while Lowe is out. “In our offense we’ve got a lot of great shooters, so once teams finally kick out on us, close out to the shooting, it’s easy two-point baskets when we just cut. It makes a lot of baskets (come) easier, and it spreads out the offense a lot more.”
While Aberdeen’s logic is sound, teams should be more willing to give UK some open looks from beyond the arc. That’s because Kentucky is shooting 32.7% on 3-pointers this season. As of Monday afternoon, that ranked just 195th out of 365 teams nationally. Combined against U of L and Michigan State, UK converted just 19 of its 64 attempts (29.7%) from deep.
Aberdeen and his fellow guards likely didn’t expect to be Kentucky’s go-to decision-makers on offense. But they’re adjusting to the responsibility that comes with trying to find players rolling to the rim, making backdoor cuts and playing off their teammates to find open space.
“Cutting with great pace, it can create high-value assist opportunities that we track in our offense,” said Johnson, who leads the team in assists with 21 (an average of 3.5 per contest).
“It’s something that, you don’t have to have the ball in your hands to be able to score, and that’s still something I’m trying to learn and figure out as I’m going. Talking to different scouts and different people and things like that, trying to see what I can do without the ball in my hands, coming here is a way that I know I could help grow my game in that area.”
For Kentucky to follow through on the preseason hype of a Final Four return, it will have to function much better in all facets of the game against top opponents. Pope has directed plenty of early-season focus to the defensive side of the ball.
But offense has long been his calling card as a coach, and that facet of the game must still deliver.
“I know we’re an unselfish team, so the ball will come back to me whenever it’s needed,” Johnson said. “But I’m just doing whatever I can to create opportunities for my teammates.”
