BOX SCORE: Kentucky's ruthless offensive efficiency stands out early

During the Kentucky men’s basketball head coaching search in April, Mark Pope made sense for UK from a fit standpoint, but the BYU head coach was also going to modernize the offensive operation in Lexington. We got a glimpse of that in the two exhibition wins, but the new approach jumped on opening night in a big win.

Kentucky’s ruthless offensive efficiency gave Wright State no shot an upset.

In the 103-62 win, Kentucky averaged a ridiculous 1.47 points per possession on 39-of-65 (60%) shooting with 30 assists and only seven turnovers in 70 possessions. The Wildcats poured in 11 threes, but only 36.9 percent of the total field goal attempts came from behind the arc. BYU had over 50 percent of their total field goal attempts come from three-point range under Pope last season.

We can expect to see a higher volume of threes as the competition heats up, but Kentucky has shown that they can hammer inferior opponents in the paint when they are focused on taking away the three-point shot.

Kentucky scored 56 paint points in the 41-point win on Monday night on 68.3 percent shooting from two-point range. The Wildcats got 50 points on dunks and lay-ups as the offense created easy looks at the basket all game long. Wings Otega Oweh (21 points on nine field goal attempts) and Koby Brea (18 points on eight field goal attempts) each scored at a ridiculous high clip.

Kentucky only need 14 free throw makes to get over 100 points. In a game that was projected to have a differential under 20 points, the home team at Rupp Arena steamrolled the team from the Horizon League with easy scoring from two-point range.

Kentucky flashed this offense’s dual-threat ability on Monday night.

Box Score: Kentucky vs. Wright State