Mark Pope expects Wright State to be a 'dangerous offensive team'

Wright State was one of the nation’s top offensive units in 2023-24, not too far off from what John Calipari‘s final Kentucky team was able to do. The Raiders ranked fourth in the country in points per game (86.5) and 10th in three-point shooting (38.3 percent). And even though first-year head coach Clint Sargent lost a good chunk of that production in the offseason, the 36-year-old returns enough scoring that Wright State should once again form an effective offense as he begins his coaching era.

Most notably, Wright State brings back Brandon Noel, who was named the Horizon League preseason Player of the Year after making the conference’s Second Team in 2023-24. Noel averaged 14.5 points and eight rebounds per outing last season while shooting 53.5 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point land. As a 6-foot-10 stretch forward, he’s a tough cover in today’s era of college basketball.

So when Wright State comes to Lexington on Monday for Kentucky’s 2024-25 season-opener, new head coach Mark Pope knows exactly who to gameplan around and what kind of offense they’ll roll out.

“Brandon Noel is really, really talented. They [Wright State] have a really talented roster,” Pope said during his Thursday press conference. “Last year they were one of the top three-point shooting teams in the country. They were one of the top scoring teams in the country. They had incredible success and we expect them to be everything that they are, which is a really, really, really dangerous offensive team for anybody in the country. I’m sure that they’re going to come in and give us everything we can handle.”

Along with Noel, Wright State also brings back 6-foot-3 guard Alex Huibregtse, who averaged 12.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game a season ago. He shot 41.7 percent from deep. Andrew Welage will also be a threat from distance after posting a 45.2 percent clip last season. Coach Sargent brought in a handful of transfers who should make immediate impacts, as well.

There will still be some unknowns with Wright State as a new head coach takes over, but Pope and his staff will continue to dive into the film and create scouting reports on the Raiders between now and Monday night.

“We got the whole staff engaged, as they will be in everything,” Pope said. “We’re very much a community organization. We’ll have everybody hitting this hard. We’ve kinda divided up all of the responsibilities in terms of we have coaches in charge of sets, personnel, scouting their defense, and going down the line. Every game is the most important game we’ve ever played and certainly this one is Monday.”

Watch the latest Mark Pope press conference on the KSR YouTube Channel.