Kentucky's offense is making history

86, 81, 84, 101, 96, 118, 95, 73, 81, 87, 95, 96. Those are the point totals of all 12 of Kentucky‘s non-conference games to open the regular season — 10 being wins. As a team, the Cats are averaging 91.1 points per contest while shooting an absurd 50.3% from the field, 41.6% from three and 73.6% at the line. And they’re averaging 19.4 assists compared to just 9.4 turnovers per game.

They’re efficient and fun, now ranked No. 7 nationally in KenPom’s offensive ratings. The Cats are also No. 7 in effective field goal percentage, No. 3 in turnover rate, No. 3 in 3-point percentage and No. 7 in non-steal turnover rate. And those numbers probably don’t do this team justice when simply looking at the eye test.

If that’s not good enough, maybe this will help: Kentucky has scored at least 81 points in 11 of the team’s first 12 games of the season since 1995-96, according to UK statistician Corey Price.

This is the first @KentuckyMBB team to score at least 81 points in 11 of their first 12 games of a season since 1995-1996

— Corey Price (@coreyp08) December 30, 2023

That team finished the year averaging 91.4 points per contest en route to a 34-2 overall record and national championship under Rick Pitino. Three players on that squad averaged double figures while nine scored at least 4.5 points per contest. Tony Delk was the leading scorer at 17.8 PPG, followed by Antoine Walker at 15.2, Walter McCarty at 11.3, Derek Anderson at 9.4, Ron Mercer at 8.0, Mark Pope at 7.6, Anthony Epps at 6.7 and Jeff Sheppard at 5.5.

This group? Five players averaging double figures with a sixth putting up 9.8 points per game and eight hitting the 7.2-point mark.

19 regular season games to go, but it’s impossible not to love what we’re seeing from the offense thus far. They are making history, after all.