Against the odds, Mark Pope is coming through on vow he made UK fans in December
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pope vowed elite offense in December; recent play has supported it.
- Kentucky averaged 89.5 points; shot 46.2% from 3 in past two wins.
- Injuries shortened the rotation, forcing roles and clearer offensive buy-in.
On December 12, after Kentucky had prevailed over border rival Indiana in what can best be described as a rock fight, UK coach Mark Pope made what seemed an outlandish vow.
“I do think we have a chance to be an elite offensive team,” Pope said. “... We’re gonna get great, man.”
At the time Pope spoke, Kentucky had just beaten Indiana 72-60 in spite of making only 37.9% of its field-goal tries and 23.8% of its 3-point attempts.
To that point in the 2025-26 campaign, UK was 1-4 in games against high-level competition — and was shooting 38.1% (113 of 296) on the season, 23.8% on 3-point tries.
A blizzard hitting Miami Beach seemed more likely at that moment than Kentucky becoming elite at offensive basketball.
I thought about Pope’s statement Wednesday night while watching UK make 46.2% of its 3-pointers en route to hanging 94 points on Oklahoma in a 94-78 victory over the Sooners before a Rupp Arena crowd of 19,394.
In back-to-back SEC victories over Oklahoma and at Arkansas, Kentucky has now made a combined 51.7% of its shots, 46.2% of its 3-point attempts and has averaged a robust 89.5 points.
The UK offense that looked so discombobulated in the first two months of the year has looked rather potent these past two games.
Against Oklahoma, ex-Sooner Otega Oweh led Kentucky (16-7, 7-3 SEC) with 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting, 3 of 4 on trey tries. Backup big man Brandon Garrison, an Oklahoma City native, also took a bite out of his home state’s flagship university with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Meanwhile, rapidly-improving sophomore guard Collin Chandler added 18 points and made 4 of 8 3-pointers for UK.
“Really proud of BG stepping up and being great,” Pope said, prior to exiting his postgame news conference to go to Blue Grass Airport to meet the flight of his daughter, Avery, who was returning from an 18-month mission in El Salvador. “Otega continues to play at an elite level. We got contributions from everybody.”
For Pope to succeed as Wildcats coach, Kentucky has to operate at a high level offensively. In the 42 games against high-level competition (defined as power conference foes plus Gonzaga) that Pope has so far coached the Wildcats, UK is 0-10 when it fails to score at least 72 points.
So when UK was held to 66, 64 and 59 points in early-season defeats to Michigan State, North Carolina and Gonzaga, respectively, it was alarming.
In the context of what we watched in November and December, it’s hard to conceive that it is the same UK team that has been over 80 points five times in its past eight games.
What has changed?
“I think more things are clicking for us offensively. I think it’s just trial and error,” Chandler said. “We’re finding things that are working, and I think we’re doing that really well. We’re finding each other in spots that we can score.”
UK assistant Jason Hart, who took the baton from Pope and finished Kentucky’s postgame news conference, noted that any offense looks better when players make shots with regularity.
“We just started making shots now,” Hart said. “Early on (in) the season, we (weren’t).”
Unquestionably, UK has a better Oweh now than it had in the season’s first two months. Slow to round into form after being sidelined in the preseason by a foot injury, Oweh has scored 20 or more points in eight of UK’s 10 Southeastern Conference games to date.
“Otega is just an elite player,” OU coach Porter Moser said of the ex-Sooners guard. “He can knock down the shot. He puts you in a really difficult decision-making mode off ball screens, because he can turn the corner on you, and now he’s making really-good decisions passing out of it.”
Injuries that have cost Kentucky its presumptive starting point guard (Jaland Lowe), top center (Jayden Quaintance) and a floor-stretching wing (Kam Williams) have thinned UK’s depth. But they also have forced Pope to shorten his rotation, which appears to have helped the remaining Kentucky players define their roles.
“As the season has gone on, we’re growing,” Chandler said. “We’re growing as a team, learning every game.”
Thrust by injury into the unanticipated role as Kentucky’s lead guard, Denzel Aberdeen has become a steadying presence. The Florida transfer has eight assists and one turnover over the past two games combined.
“I think Denzel has been brilliant,” Chandler said.
Forced to become Kentucky’s primary long-range marksman in his sophomore season, Chandler has now hit multiple 3-pointers in six of the past seven games.
“It doesn’t happen often, because guys often transfer, but he’s a prime example of believing in coach Pope’s system,” Hart said of Chandler. “His second year, he is real comfortable. He’s grown.”
Looking forward, Kentucky’s rugged scheduled down the stretch will provide an arduous test of the offensive improvement UK is showing.
Still, Mark Pope’s December promise that Kentucky would become an “elite offense” looks a lot more viable now than anyone could have ever imagined back then.
