Kentucky players admit this is the best shooting team they've ever (or will ever) be a part of

Mark Pope hasn’t been shy about his debut team at Kentucky being among the best shooting groups in all of college basketball. The first-year coach wants to let ’em fly and watch ’em fall, undoubtedly the Wildcats’ identity entering 2024-25.

 “This is us as a team. We make shots,” Pope said last week. “We put together the best shot-making team in the country, OK?”

BYU took 32.0 attempts per game a season ago, good for second-best nationally, while shooting 34.7 percent from deep and scoring 81.4 points per game. On paper, this group is deeper, more talented and more experienced, loaded with shot-makers from top to bottom. The hope is they’re a better version of the Cougars’ 23-win group that made the NCAA Tournament as a No. 6 seed playing in the Big 12.

For the players, it’s not a hope, it’s the expectation. Seeing the way they shoot in practice, there’s no reason this Kentucky team can’t surprise the college basketball world this season.

In their eyes, they’ve never been on a team with this much offensive talent with players capable of knocking down shots at the rate they can and continue to do.

“This is the best shooting team I’ve ever been a part of, and it’s probably going to be the best shooting team I’ll ever be a part of,” Amari Williams said at UK Media Day. “Just having those guys around me, knowing that I can kick it out any moment and they’re gonna make that shot, it’s a good feeling for me especially knowing I can take you off the dribble and things like that. It’s really gonna be helpful during the season.”

Pro Day was the first opportunity for fans to see it with their own eyes beyond social media highlights, but Otega Oweh doesn’t believe anything posted or streamed online does it justice. Being there and seeing it all unfold on a daily basis is fascinating and certainly lives up to the hype.

“It’s not even just off of practice,” he said. “Like, y’all see the practice clips and all that stuff, but if you see them in workouts and just every day, like when they’re just in here getting their shots up, it’s crazy. The amount of shots people make in a row is wild.”

Does he ever feel he can turn and get back defensively before the ball falls through the bottom of the net?

“Yeah. Sometimes, yeah,” Oweh added. “We’re big on offensive rebounding, so we can’t, but a lot of times we know it’s gonna go in.”

How about for the player Coach Pope called “the most efficient mid-to-high major player in college basketball in the last decade” the day Koby Brea signed with Kentucky? The Dayton transfer says he’s never been pushed by his peers in practice his entire life — that’s always been the coin-flip shooter’s specialty.

Now, he’s curious if he’s even the best marksman on the team as a Wildcat.

“Most definitely. I’ve never been around a group of guys that can shoot it this well,” Brea said. “It’s just like — I’m usually the best shooter on my team. Now I’m starting to second guess that.”