Kentucky basketball has a long break. Here’s what the Cats will be working on
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky pauses between nonconference and SEC play to rest and regroup.
- Coaches will use prolonged practice to refine two-big lineups and defense.
- Injured players get recovery time; Lowe and Quaintance expected to return.
A four-game winning streak that featured the only two quality wins of the season so far?
A lot of college basketball coaches would likely prefer to ride that momentum and keep on playing through the holidays.
Not Mark Pope. Not under these circumstances.
Pope’s Kentucky Wildcats played their final nonconference game last Tuesday afternoon — a 99-85 victory over Bellarmine — and they’ll play their first game of the SEC schedule Saturday at Alabama, which is likely to be one of the toughest matchups of the season.
Between those two contests, they’ll get quite a bit of time off.
Some of UK’s players headed home for Christmas break right after Tuesday’s game. Kam Williams, the star of the win over Bellarmine, was going straight from the arena to the airport to catch a flight to Louisiana. Others had their air travel set for Tuesday night.
The plan called for the Cats to reconvene in Lexington by Sunday, with practice for the Alabama game starting Monday morning.
“I think the break’s important for us,” Pope said. “… Listen, they’ve been through a lot emotionally, for sure. And they’ve taken some hits, and they’ve responded really, really well. I’m really proud of this group, in the sense of how they responded over the last three weeks. We got better. We reoriented some things. We kind of found some new mentality, and I think we have enough of a base that it’s something that’s gonna filter through our guys over the course of the next 10 days, where we get to really, really get some work done on the practice floor and try and embrace what we have.
“But we have a little vision of what we can be. … And I think we’re excited about it.”
This UK basketball season didn’t go according to plan in the beginning. Losses to Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina and Gonzaga marred the first month of a campaign that was supposed to be special.
Since that 35-point defeat to the Zags in Nashville — a game in which the Cats were booed off the court by their own fans on multiple occasions — Pope’s team has regrouped. Victories over Indiana and St. John’s — and the return of Jaland Lowe, coupled with the debut of Jayden Quaintance — have rekindled hope that this could indeed be a special season.
“I think our response has been good,” Pope said. “... And so it gives you confidence, as a coach, when things don’t go right and guys respond the way you want them to in the long run. I think that’s pretty powerful. So I think it gives us high hopes moving forward and as we move into this gauntlet of SEC league play. Just can’t wait to get there.”
Well, Pope can wait, actually. He knows his team needs a little more time to prepare first.
There’s plenty to work on from a basketball standpoint.
The Cats made strides toward Pope’s “Make Plays 4 Teammates” quest against Bellarmine, moving the ball better on offense and getting more good looks from 3-point range — and then actually hitting those shots — than they had been. UK’s coach wants his guys to continue to open up the floor for each other with unselfish play on and off the ball.
Pope has experimented in recent weeks with more two-big lineups — playing a pair of Quaintance, Brandon Garrison and Malachi Moreno at the same time — and he’s been pleased with Kentucky’s more physical style, especially against Indiana and St. John’s.
“Those are areas where we’ve made some growth,” he said.
There’s more to work on there, however, and continuing to hone that physicality — especially on the boards — will be a point of emphasis moving forward.
Of the six games against high-major foes, Kentucky had its best two defensive efforts, by far, in the wins over Indiana and St. John’s, and Pope’s players said after the Bellarmine game that they knew hammering home the team’s defensive principles would be a big part of the week leading up to their matchup with Alabama, which is one of the top scoring teams in the country.
Perhaps most importantly, the week and a half with no games will give injured Cats time to heal.
Lowe didn’t play at all against Bellarmine, three days after shaking off his lingering shoulder injury to lead the Cats to a comeback win over St. John’s.
“He had a little bit of soreness. Just a little bit of pain,” Pope said Tuesday. “So we just made the calculated decision to (sit him). When he steps on the floor, I’d like him to be at full strength. I think that’s gonna be important for us going forward. I expect him to play every game, but this was just an opportunity for us to maybe let him heal up a little bit more, especially with a break coming up now for a few days.”
Quaintance played only eight minutes against Bellarmine after going 17 — including 14 in the second half — in the win over St. John’s, which marked his first game in 10 months due to major knee surgery. Quaintance made national waves in his UK debut, and the projected NBA lottery pick is expected to be a huge factor in whatever success the Cats have from here on out.
This next week of practice will also be beneficial for the 18-year-old sophomore, who had only three full practices with the team before making his debut.
“It’s a big week for him,” Pope said. “... These practices, I can’t tell you how excited we are about them. And it’s going to give us a chance to really be grounded and really work and really kind of dig in and kind of forge more of our identity with him in the lineup, with two bigs in the lineup, with the kind of rotations that we were thinking about.
“So this practice time will be really valuable for us.”
Garrison didn’t play in the second half against Bellarmine due to some “soreness” in his knee, Pope said, noting that he was held out of the rest of that game as a precaution. The rest will surely do him some good, too.
It’s worth a reminder that Otega Oweh, the SEC preseason player of the year, missed a large chunk of fall practice with a turf toe injury suffered over the summer. And fellow starter Mouhamed Dioubate was sidelined five games with a high ankle sprain. UK’s wins over Indiana and St. John’s came in his first two games back.
The Cats themselves are looking forward to getting out of Lexington for a bit, too. As some of the players talked about what they hoped to get for Christmas this year, senior guard Denzel Aberdeen said he simply wanted to see his family. He had a flight home to Florida on Tuesday night.
“I’m going back home to my mom and my dog that I haven’t seen in months,” he said, clearly excited to be reunited with both in a matter of hours. “And it’s going to be much warmer where I’m at, so I’m very excited about that.”
As Aberdeen said that, the forecast for his arrival date back in Lexington had lows in the teens. But that’s OK, too. He and the rest of the Wildcats still have a lot to prove this season, and — as much as they were looking forward to those few days off — getting back on the basketball court had a pretty nice ring to it, as well.
“It’s gonna be a good break,” Aberdeen said. “But once we get back, we really gotta get rolling, because it becomes more competition, better teams, stuff like that. The SEC is a great league, so we just got to come back and be ready.”
