4-Point Play: Leftovers from Blue-White ahead of exhibition slate

Real-life basketball is coming, BBN. How do you feel? Excited? Maybe a little anxious? Nervous, hoping the Mark Pope era is everything we hope for and more when Kentucky takes on other teams starting this week? We’ll find out starting Wednesday when the Wildcats face off against Kentucky Wesleyan in the exhibition opener at 7 p.m. ET inside Rupp Arena.

Until then, we’ve still got some time to talk through how things went in the Blue-White Preseason Event at Historic Memorial Coliseum on Friday, Blue defeating White by a final score of 67-66 in the most competitive intrasquad scrimmage in recent memory. Kerr Kriisa sat out due to NIL renegotiations a minor hamstring issue while the rest of the Wildcats threw haymakers back and forth, leading to a game-winning free throw by Travis Perry to close out the Elam Ending. The winning squad shot 43.8 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from three while the White went 53.1 percent overall and 31.6 percent from deep.

They’re still working out the kinks with sloppy turnovers and bad shot selection, but the vision is clearly there for a fun and exciting brand of basketball that should operate like a well-oiled machine in time. Finishing with 30 assists on 47 made shots with 17 threes certainly drives that point home.

What else can we take away from the Blue-White scrimmage before Wesleyan makes the drive from Owensboro this week? Let’s run through some leftovers.

“We’re a green light team.”

The Cats shot 17-49 from three overall, good for 34.7 percent between the two teams. And that’s with Kriisa sitting out for precautionary reasons, a guy who shot 42.4 percent from three on over six attempts per game a year ago. Overall, nine different players took threes, all with multiple attempts and seven with at least four.

Pope has said this team will average 35 attempts from deep per game, and the only way to get there is by launching early and often across the board.

“We’re a green light team. We trust everybody on our team, they were recruited for a specific reason,” Pope said after the Blue-White Preseason Event. “We want to be really, really aggressive and we want to do it together. We want to earn each other shots, that’s really important. Our guys all have a feel for that, which is going to be fun to watch as they grow.”

Collin Chandler is a ‘big-time basketball player’

The surprise standout of the night was none other than the freshman guard who didn’t play competitive basketball for two years while away on mission. Chandler went for 19 points on 7-10 shooting and 4-7 from three to go with three rebounds, three assists and two steals, undoubtedly one of the best players on the floor.

He made shots and threw down absolutely filthy poster slams, looking like an immediate contributor in blue and white. Pope says what we saw inside Memorial is what he’s shown in practice up to this point — no fluke. And the former four-star recruit is only going to get better.

“Collin, like all of our guys, is a really special human being, man. He’s built special,” Pope said. “He’s made incredible personal sacrifices to serve people and love people, and he’s making huge sacrifices for this team right now. When you have guys like that that are filling up your locker room, it puts you in a really great space. I thought he was terrific tonight. I thought he was really aggressive, I thought it was incredibly smart. He’s going to get better and better every single day.

“Imagine taking two years off without touching a basketball. You’re a little — you’ve got a little rust to shake off. He’s an incredibly talented young man who’s a better person than he is a basketball player. And you guys saw tonight, he’s a big-time, big-time basketball player.”

Greatness expected out of Andrew Carr

Chandler was the surprise, but Carr was the biggest producer, going for a game-high 25 points on 6-11 shooting, 3-4 from three and 10-10 at the line while adding seven rebounds and four assists.

Need I say more? Pope doesn’t. In fact, every fan should expect that kind of stat line every night from Carr and may boo the fifth-year senior if he doesn’t hit those minimums.

(Kidding, please don’t do that.)

“Watching his film and looking at his numbers, he was insane last year. He’s so skilled at every level of the game,” Pope said Friday. “He’s skilled beyond the arc, he’s skilled as a playmaker and a passer, he’s skilled off the bounce. He’s an incredibly creative finisher around the rim and he’s been growing into a terrific defensive player. The first time we got to talk on the phone, I’m like, ‘Oh man, I would give anything to coach this young man.’ Because he’s special and I like the way he thinks about the world, the way he thinks about his team and his game.

“His line is basically — this is the floor for him. We should never see anything less than 25 and seven, 10 for 10 (at the line), right?”

‘It’s the right time’ to play other teams

Now for the fun stuff, everything that comes next for the Wildcats. It starts with Kentucky Wesleyan on Wednesday, followed by Minnesota State Mankato to wrap up the exhibition schedule on Tuesday, Oct. 29. From there, we get the opener against Wright State on Monday, Nov. 4 and then nothing but Kentucky hoops through March (and hopefully April).

After a long summer and early fall, Pope says now is the time to take on opposing teams and figure out what he has in his debut group in Lexington.

“It’s just time. It’s the right time for us. In our progression right now, we desperately need to play against other teams. We’re playing against a terrific team on Wednesday, and then the next week, we’re playing a national champion (in Minnesota State Mankato), and it goes on from there. It’s just time, it’s what we need. It’s the right time,” he said. “It’s really hard to coach two teams, because when you’re coaching your own team against each other, there’s actually either no successes, because there’s always something that’s gone wrong on either side of the ball, or you can get lost in the fact that — which I do sometimes — ‘We’re incredible!’ because every single play is a winning play, either defensively or offensively.”

He needs to figure out rotations and lineups, who works best together in live game action. The offseason has been fruitful, but there is so much more to learn that you just can’t until the ball is tipped on the season. That starts in a couple of days.

“It’s good, I’m really excited about putting this group together and to learn how we function, not as five guys, but as 12 guys. I think that’s where we get really special,” Pope said. “I think our five guys are really good, but I think our 12 guys are insanely capable. This process of trying to put together these 12 guys on one bench, I’m so excited about it. I think these guys are built right, I think they care about each other, I think they care about this game. It doesn’t make it easy.

“All of a sudden, minutes will get sparse, opportunities maybe get a little bit less. Guys aren’t exhausting begging to get a blow, now they start to feel like, ‘Oh, I would kill to get a couple more minutes.’ But if we do this right, it’s going to come in waves from this team and I think we have guys that are made to do that.”