Kentucky's defensive switch-ups were key to second half comeback win

Halftime adjustments? Are those legal? Kentucky came back down 16 points at halftime to beat Gonzaga in what was one of the greatest regular-season neutral site/away games (whatever you want to call the Battle in Seattle” in history. One of the keys to holding the Zags to 39 percent from the field in the second half (the magic number to success according to Mark Pope) was the Wildcats’ change in defense.

Kentucky went to a 1-3-1 zone on multiple possessions out of the break and the change of pace seemed to throw off the Bulldogs. Gonzaga went from getting anything they wanted at any point in the first half to a massive struggle to put the ball through the hoop. They also implemented a fake zone at times, switching to man-to-man after a few passes.

When asked after the game about his decision to switch up the defense, Pope said, “It is easy to [change defense] when you’re getting cooked.”

Fair point, coach.

Mark Few, on the other hand, wasn’t so quick to credit the change in defense to his team’s struggles scoring in the second half. Almost completely brushing off the strategy, Few said, “Ah, they just [ran] a fake zone…we run it too sometimes. [Our players] were [still] getting open looks. Open 3s. We were 0-9 from 3 in the second half.” Few went on about his team’s shooting woes: “We just had a lid on the rim. We had a lot of good looks, ones that we made in the first half, ones we made all year…and [that] gave them life.”

Few can downplay the defensive scheme all he wants, but there’s no question it got Gonzaga out of their rhythm. Credit Pope for a remarkable job at halftime to change things up. Who knew a Kentucky coach could do that?