One of the 1978 team's most famous plays helped Kentucky beat Duke

Mark Pope had his team watch highlights of the 1978, 1992, and 1998 Kentucky vs. Duke games to prepare for the rivalry. Turns out they may have taken a page from the 1978 team’s playbook to clinch the statement win vs. the Blue Devils.

After a Cooper Flagg turnover, Kentucky got the ball under its own basket up two, 74-72, with 5.5 seconds to go. On the in-bounds play, Koby Brea launched the ball almost the full length of the court to a sprinting Lamont Butler, who caught it over his shoulder and drew a foul. Butler made one of two free throws, with Otega Oweh rebounding the miss and drawing a foul of his own to go to the free-throw line and seal the victory.

Tom Leach, perhaps with the help of his broadcasting partner Goose Givens, recognized the play. In his postgame conversation with Pope, Leach pointed out it was very similar to the out-of-bounds play the 1978 team ran in late-game situations, where Kyle Macy would throw the ball almost all of the way down the court to Goose to score. While Pope said it was a read by Brea instead of a play they drew up during the timeout, he did say it was one of many variations of a set they’d studied that Brea and Butler executed perfectly.

“It’s super, super old, and there’s actually a ton of different options. It’s actually a read. And so you just kind of reading where they’re committing defensively. And Koby was, for a minute, he was Joe Montana, and threw a perfect pass, and Lamont, on a bad angle, chased it down and did it under control, and was strong with the ball.”

“And those plays are really important. There’s a ton of variations to that, but that was the look that was open today, and the guys executed it really well. And like I said, it’s those little plays that actually don’t even show up in the box score — it does as a free throw, for Lamont — but are really important. Our guys executed well. And like I said, that’s a — you have to see it and make the read really quickly, and for Koby to actually make that read that quickly and then just have a perfect basket catch by Lamont.”

It was awesome, as is the idea of Mark Pope going through the Kentucky Basketball archives to find inspiration for his own, unique brand of basketball.

Mark Pope said after the game this wasn't a set play and that it was just a read by Lamont Butler. What a pass from Koby Brea, especially under those circumstances. pic.twitter.com/kZ9VByDcWp

— Chris Fisher (@ChrisFisher247) November 13, 2024

Pope on Otega stealing the ball from Cooper Flagg

Leach also asked about an equally important play that happened about ten seconds earlier. Cooper Flagg had the ball and was about to spin in the paint when Andrew Carr stepped into his path and Otega Oweh stole the ball, which led to two free throws on the other end to put Kentucky up by two with 10.3 seconds left.

“Cooper was on a roll; he was really hurting us in isolation,” Pope said of the superstar freshman. “As the game went on, and they got more deliberate about that guy being able to score, we talked about on the turn, actually, on the spin, he lets it go and spin and spin back. So on the spin, go make a play and, and Otega is, as you know, he’s one of the country’s elite defenders and the fact that he was able to be there, get hands on the ball legally, right, which is a huge part of it. It’s not just sending a second defender, but it’s sending a second defender and doing it legally.

“[Oweh] was great. And Andrew Carr just being able to stand up, be able to catch the first move, catch the second move, so he has to spin back. So it was a terrific concerted effort by both those guys and a really good instinctive read and a good feel.”

How this team is doing these things after just three games amazes me.