4-Point Play: Moving past game one of the Mark Pope era

The fun of night one is coming to an end as we look ahead to game two and the rest of the season under Mark Pope. Up next? The fighting Nate Sestinas of Bucknell, that matchup taking place on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET inside Rupp Arena.

Pope will talk to the media on Thursday to preview the game as things keep moving forward. Until then, how about some late-night leftovers to wrap up the Wright State win in the opener? Works with me.

“They were a lot to handle.”

Everyone talks about the Kentucky offense, but it was actually the defense that stood out to Wright State coach Clint Sargent in the head-to-head battle. The Raiders came in well-prepared with a plan to slow down the Wildcats from the perimeter by forcing them to take twos — which worked, considering they finished with 11 makes on 24 attempts from deep, including just four threes in the first half. What they didn’t anticipate, though, was just how much the defense would speed them up and make life difficult for them offensively.

Shooting just 35.3 percent overall and 18.5 percent from three with 12 turnovers was not on their bingo card entering the night.

“I really felt like we came in here with good preparation. I thought our guy’s minds were right—had good prep on the two games we had on Coach Pope’s team. Quite honestly, I thought a lot of the talk and a lot of the excitement about his team [was with] the offense. I certainly get that, but I was very impressed with their physicality defensively,” Sargent said. “I thought it sped us up. I thought it put us on our heels early, and then obviously, when they get out in transition, they’re hard to guard. Coming into this game, [I had] a ton of respect for Coach Pope, and his story— how he built a roster in a short amount of time that really fit his scheme.”

In short, Wright State failed its test while Kentucky passed its own with flying colors.

“I think we’re a better team than this,” he added. “We could’ve played better, but when I sat there and kind of took it in, I think you got to start with just giving a ton of credit to Kentucky. They were a lot to handle tonight.”

Cats ranked No. 14 in FG%, No. 26 in scoring

We’re going to be tracking numbers and analytics all year long, obviously. When you put a premium on offense with shooting and scoring, we want to see where it all stacks up nationally compared to Kentucky’s top competitors game by game, week by week and month by month.

What have we learned about the Wildcats at the national level thus far? Well, the sample size is essentially non-existent with just one game to work with, creating some massive outliers. UNC Wilmington leads the country in scoring, for instance, with South Carolina State, Dartmouth, Winthrop and Milwaukee rounding out the top five. UNCW also sits at No. 1 in field goal percentage while SCSU is ranked No. 4 nationally, Michigan and Miami in between at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

But if we’re gonna follow along all year, we might as well start now. Here is where Kentucky stands at the national level in some top categories:

• No. 2 in fastbreak points (36.0)
• No. 5 in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.29)
• No. 14 in field goal percentage (60.0%)
• No. 16 in effective field goal percentage (68.5%)
• No. 26 in scoring offense (103.0)
• No. 41 in 3-point percentage (45.83%)
• No. 45 in scoring margin (41)

Does it mean anything right now? Of course not! It will down the road, though, and we’ll keep following along until then.

Not prepared for fireworks

Were you spooked during the pregame fireworks inside Rupp Arena on Monday? You’re not alone.

Fireworks in general aren’t new — it’s been a tradition for years — but for some reason the pop was a different level of loud in the season opener. Maybe they upgraded to get the Pope era started off on a high note? Whatever it was, the players noticed and startled ’em a bit leading up to tip-off.

“It does [feel different knowing it’s a real game],” Otega Oweh said after the win. “Just knowing that we won it feels good. I mean the atmosphere was crazy, like the pregame was a little different. You heard booms and stuff like that, so it just feels different for sure.”

“It surprises me every night we have a game. Even those loud bangs before the game caught a lot of us by surprise and kind of scared us,” Amari Williams added. “But it was a great atmosphere for sure.”

Don’t get startled if you attend a game at Rupp this season. The bangs are coming.

“The Kentucky Wildcats, I’m very high on” – Mark Titus

Feeling good about the Cats after game one? You’re not the only one. In fact, Club Trillion himself, Mark Titus, singled out Kentucky as a team to watch this season after seeing the opening run of college basketball matchups this season.

The reason? None other than Mark Pope.

“The Kentucky Wildcats, I’m very high on. And I’m very high on them because I’m very high on Mark Pope as a coach,” Titus said. “They play a ton of guys, I think they had six guys in double figures and a seventh scored eight points. How many assists did they have? 30 assists, seven turnovers, they hit 11 threes, shot 46 percent from three. They beat Wright State by 41 and I think they were favored by like 20.”

It wasn’t the fact that they won, but rather how they won and the different ways this group can attack you on both ends. Needless to say, he loved what he say.

“You have to apply context and say they blew out a team they were supposed to blow out, but at the same time, they won by 40 and scored 103 points,” he added. “They’re sharing the ball, pushing the tempo, they’re very, very deep. Koby Brea might be the best shooter in the country. They’ve got dudes and I’m fascinated or drawn to teams that have the depth, that have the pace, that have the shooting. Those are the teams that stand out to me and that’s why I love this Kentucky team.”

"The Kentucky Wildcats…I am very high on because of Mark Pope" – @clubtrillion pic.twitter.com/35fV9WcZVO

— Mark Titus Show (@MarkTitusShow) November 6, 2024