Cameron Mills shares behind-the-scenes look at Kentucky practice to open season

It’s a little different now than the summer and early fall when Big Blue Nation obsessed over every crumb of intel they could get their hands on regarding Mark Pope‘s first practices at Kentucky. Would this team be any good? How good? Who are the standouts? Any surprises? We look for those answers every second until the games start like clockwork.

So what happens now that we’ve seen this group with our own eyes and can say with some level of confidence the Wildcats are gonna be pretty good? The questions then turn to why Kentucky is good, and that’s where former Kentucky sharpshooter and Pope’s old teammate Cameron Mills comes in.

Like we’ve gotten used to in recent months, Mills dropped another UK HealthCare Practice Report with the UK Sports Network this week to recap the practices surrounding the exhibition slate and the season opener — a 41-point beatdown vs. Wright State. What’s the secret to success?

Silence, says Coach Pope.

According to Mills, Pope wrapped up walkthrough with a five-minute period of complete silence inside Rupp Arena in an effort to get quiet time they likely don’t receive in their day-to-day lives.

“At one point during walkthrough, after they’ve dummied up the opponent’s offense and defense, they’ve gotten some shots up, they have a drill where one of the very last things they do is everybody gets on the free throw line and everybody gathers around. Everybody takes two shots,” Mills said. “The drill isn’t so much for the guys to get free throws up, it’s that he wants it quiet. The first time I was there at walkthrough, he made — this is in Rupp Arena — an announcement to the entire arena loudly, ‘I need everyone to be quiet.’ It’s a five-minute period of time where there is to be no talking — not by the players, not by any media that happened to be there, not by any of the workers at Rupp Arena. It is to be deathly quiet in Rupp while they’re shooting their free throws.”

With so many outside distractions, Pope wants his team to have a period of nothing to worry about beyond putting a ball in a hoop. No coaching, no teammates or media members yapping in their ears, just themselves within their own thoughts.

“I asked Mark specifically about what that was about. What? Why? Why five minutes? Why during free throws? And what’s with the being so adamant that there’s no sound at all? And it’s simply this: because of social media, because of gaming, because of all kinds of reasons, he doesn’t think these guys ever get enough quiet. And if Rupp Arena is doing what Rupp Arena should do, they’re not getting any quiet there either,” Mills added. “So they’re gonna get quiet in Rupp Arena, but through walkthrough. To me, it’s just fascinating because of the way Mark thinks outside the box when it comes to these things, where it’s, hey, I want my guys to have five minutes of introspection. I want them to have five minutes where they are not thinking about anything other than maybe making a free throw.

“But more importantly, there’s nothing going in here. All they could hear is the bounce of the ball and hopefully the swish of the net.”

Other key takeaways from Mills’ practice report? An emphasis on offensive rebounding, which has been an issue for Kentucky to open the season.

“If you look at the statistics, we have been out-offensive-rebounded by both exhibition teams and by Wright State the other night, by a total of seven offensive rebounds,” Mills said. “And what’s interesting about that is one of the reasons that Mark’s offense is so three-point centric, because you’ve got a better chance of getting an offensive rebound on a three-point attempt than you do a two-point attempt. So if we’re going to shoot threes, in part because we get a better chance of getting an offensive rebound, and we’re not taking advantage of those offensive rebounds? We’re getting out-rebounded by seven total this year and have been out-rebounded by every team. That’s something we’ve got to work on.

“Something that Mark is absolutely emphasizing right now is that we’ve got to get to the offensive glass because, number one, second-chance points matter. Number two, we’re not taking full advantage of every possession. We’re shooting a lot of three-point shots.”

Plenty of good stuff from Cameron Mills in the full recap. Take a look below:

Another @UK_HealthCare Practice Report with @CameronMillz

What has he seen during practice?
– An emphasis on offensive rebounds
– 5 minutes of silence
– Building team chemistry pic.twitter.com/lwDC0YHKn7

— UK Sports Network (@UKSportsNetwork) November 7, 2024

Follow Pope’s lead and find five minutes of silence today. Go Cats.