4-Point Play: What to watch for in Kentucky's Blue-White Preseason Event

Kentucky‘s annual Blue-White Scrimmage is notoriously misleading — or it was under John Calipari, at least. We have a decade-and-a-half sample size of shocking performances, highlighted by Darnell Dodson’s game-high 26 points in 2009, Josh Harrellson’s 26 rebounds in 2010, Terrence Jones’ 52 points in 2011, Ryan Harrow and Jon Hood combining for 37 in 2012, Derek Willis’ 21 and 8 in 2013, Skal Labissiere and Charles Matthews combining for 35 in 2015 and Mychal Mulder going for 18 in 2016 — shall I go on?

Who will be the guy we’re all talking about tonight in Mark Pope‘s first-ever intrasquad scrimmage at Kentucky? The format is going to be different — again, no television or stream in the exclusive Club Blue event to raise money for NIL — but the combined all-access practice should give us plenty to work with in terms of singling out top performers.

Will those standouts be misleading or predict what’s to come in Pope’s debut season with the Wildcats? That’s to be determined. Until then, let’s highlight some guys who could have big nights at Historic Memorial Coliseum and the storylines to follow.

Mark Pope’s coaching in action

Part of the intrigue when hiring Pope to begin with is his basketball mind as one of the top rising coaches in the country. His offense is something you’d see in a video game with constant off-ball movement and misdirection creating 35 3-pointers in an exciting run-and-gun style of play. And as the first-year coach made clear when setting up this event, he wanted this experience to highlight the best of his system with the staff mic’d up explaining it all in real time.

“Our coaches will be mic’d up, so you’ll be able to hear them coaching,” Pope told KSR. “… You’ll really get an inside look at exactly the mechanism from the outside and in, how we operate, how we’re trying to build this thing. I think it’s going to be incredible, actually. I’m super excited about it.”

And it won’t be a glorified layup line, either. This will be a real practice with players fighting the way they will in live game action — if not harder.

“We’re going to compete,” he added. “Like, it’s going to be game speed, full intensity, kind of pride and guts, blood and sweat on the floor type of scrimmage where our guys are trying to prove themselves.”

Kerr Kriisa vs. Lamont Butler

There isn’t a better showman on the team than Kriisa, who was screaming at the top of his lungs after knocking down shots and taking charges in one-on-one drills at UK Pro Day last week. The West Virginia transfer can get hot in a hurry and he’ll take pride in the head-to-head matchup with Butler, who will be one of college basketball’s best perimeter defenders in 2024-25. That back and forth will be worth the price of admission, a true battle of offense vs. defense.

Kriisa can be a bit turnover prone and shot selection can be an issue at times while the defense is definitely high risk and high reward. As we’ve seen in the past, though, shooters can go nuclear in settings like this. But Butler is a pest on the other side of the floor who knows how to use his strength and physicality to make stops and force turnovers while also emerging as the team’s floor general and leader as PG1. Iron will undoubtedly be sharpening iron tonight in Memorial.

Will Andrew Carr and Travis Perry ever miss?

Two of the standouts from Pro Day were Carr and Perry, who traded off corner threes for five straight minutes, making one shot after another in front of NBA scouts in attendance. They were uncontested attempts outside a live game setting, but if things go as planned, there should be plenty of uncontested attempts within live game settings, as well. Tonight should be a good showcase of that. If it’s a regulation scrimmage with two 20-minute halves of five-on-five intrasquad competition, the 35 3-point attempts they plan to take per game this season should be doubled to 70 with both sides launching, right? Of those, you’d love to see 40-plus-percent of them fall.

Kentucky DOES NOT miss!!

Can you tell who is the best shooter on the team because I can’t… pic.twitter.com/6TCnwUuJLp

— Mario A Maitland (@MarioMaitland_3) October 7, 2024

The team is loaded with shooters — Jaxson Robinson, Koby Brea, Ansley Almonor, Trent Noah and Collin Chandler joining Kriisa, Carr and Perry — but it’ll be interesting to see if the Wake Forest transfer and KHSAA’s all-time leading scorer can build upon their strong performances at Pro Day, the latter also winning the 3-point contest at Big Blue Madness.

Who will be the surprise(s)?

We can’t get out of a Blue-White scrimmage without a surprise, right? It never fails, and it only makes sense that trend continues with Pope taking over the program. The question, though, is who.

It’s not always unlikely — John Wall went for 25 and 11, Brandon Knight went for a then-record 37 points and Anthony Davis added 27 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks, to name a few — but never discount the unexpected. Right when you think one thing is coming in the annual intrasquad scrimmage, Darnell Dodson drops 26 on your head.

For my money, I’m rolling with Otega Oweh — who happens to also be my season sleeper, mind you — as the guy who shines brightest on Friday. With all eyes on shooting and the system catering to folks who let it fly, it’s going to be the athletic bruiser who gets paint touches and finishes with force around the rim coming away with MVP honors. The two-way threat is going to wreak havoc defensively while using that created space to his advantage on tough drives to the basket.

Let’s throw Ansley Almonor in there, as well. That’s a kid who knows his role and is going to make the most of it this year, starting tonight in Club Blue’s Blue-White Preseason Event.

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We’ll see you there, BBN.