Mark Pope tried something different to start the Arkansas game. And it worked
It’s been a problem all season long, and game 21 was as good an example of it as any.
Last Tuesday night in Nashville, the Kentucky Wildcats couldn’t hit the broadside of a backboard to start things off against Vanderbilt. Mark Pope’s Wildcats missed their first nine shots from the field. At one point midway through the first half, they were shooting 3 for 20 from the floor, and Denzel Aberdeen was the only UK player who had seen the ball go through the hoop.
By the time someone other than Aberdeen made a shot, the game was basically over. The Cats were well on their way to an 80-55 loss.
The final score was more lopsided than most, but the early struggles were nothing new.
Several times over the course of this season, Pope’s Cats had gotten off to similarly scary starts. The Vandy loss marked the eighth time in eight games away from Rupp Arena that UK had fallen behind by double digits in the first half. The Cats weren’t much better at home in the early going against the best teams on their schedule.
Pope has spent the past couple of months talking about the struggles, unable to put his finger on the exact reason behind the ineptitude. If he had the solution, there wouldn’t be a problem.
As the bad basketball has continued, so have the opinions from the outside.
On a recent edition of his weekly radio show, Pope got a tip from a Kentucky fan named Brian who said he’d been looking at the players’ profiles in the team’s media guide. Several of the guys, Brian noticed, listed naps as part of their pregame routine.
Maybe do away with the naps?
“I’m sure you’re getting all kinds of suggestions,” show host Tom Leach said to the coach.
Pope didn’t disagree. He said he and the UK staff were thinking about the scheme early in games. “We’re thinking about everything else, too,” he acknowledged.
That was before the terrible start at Vanderbilt. So, back to the drawing board.
Perhaps what the Wildcats drew up next has some legs?
In the opening minutes of an 85-77 win at No. 15 Arkansas on Saturday night, this looked like a totally different UK team. Otega Oweh hit a layup on Kentucky’s first possession of the game. Aberdeen nailed a 3-pointer on the second one. Collin Chandler missed a jumper after that.
And then the Cats couldn’t miss.
Kentucky hit its next eight shots from the field. Five different Wildcats got in on that action. There were 3-pointers and midrange jumpers. Dunks and layups. They all went in. By the time Aberdeen hit another 3 to give UK a 10-for-11 start from the field, the Cats were up 24-11, and they’d taken the raucous Bud Walton Arena crowd out of the game.
They’d need all of those early points for the stretch run.
With Oweh and starting center Malachi Moreno sitting beside him and nodding along, Pope said after the win that the staff switched up their practice routine following the Vanderbilt debacle.
“In practice, the last two days, we had a huge emphasis on the first four minutes, six minutes of a scrimmage each day,” he said. “And the guys really worked. It’s hard in practice to simulate the intensity of a game, but these guys really tried to do that. And so it really came from our team and our staff of figuring out a better way to approach this.
“And it doesn’t guarantee that we’re not going to have slow starts, but it certainly was a credit to our guys for being ready to go from the tip tonight. I thought they were terrific.”
While talking with Trent Noah — a key contributor in the victory Saturday — UK radio analyst Jack Givens pointed out that the Wildcats’ practice Thursday was one of the best he’d seen in weeks. That gameday intensity was one of the contributing factors.
“We definitely did have a good practice,” Noah agreed. “And we kind of switched our flow up a little bit. We made it a little more game-like. We did the same pregame stuff it would be like as a game. And tonight, that kind of helped (avoid) our slow start. So that’s just another credit to the staff. I mean, these coaches that we get to play for are brilliant. They’re some of the best minds. And it sure fixed it tonight.”
Pope singled out Moreno for his composure in the early going. The UK big man got an assist on Aberdeen’s first 3-pointer, and the coaching staff wanted to play through him. Moreno was poised, and his teammates stuck with the game plan. Everyone went through the proper progressions — no one got impatient, as Pope said the Cats had in Nashville four days earlier — and it led to lots of points.
“I’m going to say it’s because of their commitment to practicing getting to an emotionally peaked place to start the game — that it felt a little more comfortable. We’ll see how that bears out,” Pope said. “But I was proud of these guys’ effort for doing it. And I think when you do that, it gives you a better chance to make shots. . …
“It was guys making plays to put other people in positions where they could actually go to work with an advantage. And so I think guys did a nice job tonight, earning stuff for each other.”
Kentucky ended up with only 11 assists on 30 made baskets. Normally, the UK coach would not be pleased with that rate, but — in this game — he implied those numbers were misleading and that his guys had opened up opportunities for each other that weren’t reflected in the box score.
Ever since the summer, Pope has talked up the competitiveness of his Cats. Those who were regular practice-goers from the beginning backed up those boasts, saying Pope’s players were going at it every day inside the Joe Craft Center in a “take no prisoners” kind of way.
But when the real games began — against the best teams, at least — that fire was often lacking. Pope was flabbergasted. He couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t translating.
One good start does not mean the Wildcats’ early-game woes are behind them. Everyone will be watching them in those first few minutes against Oklahoma on Wednesday night — and Tennessee on Saturday, and so on — to see if this sticks.
But what the Cats showed Saturday night in Fayetteville might be the start of something better. For one night, at least, it was the start Pope had been hoping to see.
“Every team is different,” he said. “Like, I’ve never had a team that needed some of the things that this team needs, and I’ve never had a team that maybe didn’t do some of the things that this team has. And so we were trying things that we’ve actually never done before, and I thought our guys responded. ...
“We’ll see what kind of staying power it has. But I was really proud of the guys for giving a great effort the last several days to try to address some of our issues.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
