Mark Pope gives in-depth scouting report on the Trojans: 'Troy is a championship team.'

Mark Pope loves paying attention to the tiniest of details. It’s what’s made him a respectable (and successful) head coach in his first season as Kentucky head coach. His off-the-cuff ability to break down opponents is something you just have to sit back and appreciate. You’ll be a smarter basketball mind after a couple of minutes talking ball with Pope.

Which explains why one fan of the KSR Radio Show was adamant about hearing Pope’s breakdown of the Troy Trojans, Kentucky’s first-round opponent later tonight in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Matt Jones is in Milwaukee for the Wildcats’ postseason run and made sure the fan, who texted the same question 17 times, had his voice heard.

Pope was more than willing to oblige, spending three minutes of his press conference going in-depth on everything Troy does well from both a numbers and an Xs and Os standpoint.

“Troy is a championship team. That’s the greatness of the NCAA Tournament,” Pope explained. “Everybody in here is a championship or a championship-caliber team.

“Troy’s the number seven steals team in the country. They’re the number six offensive rebounding team in the country. To put it in perspective, in the SEC, the best conference in the country by a mile, the only team that we played that was more effective on the offensive glass in the entire league was Texas A&M, in a league that prides itself on being on the offensive glass. That’s how potent this Troy team is on the glass.”

It’s not often a mid-major ranks top 10 nationally in multiple categories. But Troy head coach Scott Cross has this group excelling at disrupting passing lanes and crashing the glass off their own misses. Pope sees those qualities Troy possesses in some past opponents from earlier in the season.

“They’re very much in the genre of Missouri in terms of having a multitude of changing defenses that they use all the time,” He said. “They have anywhere between three and five kind of zone attacks, some full-court pressure, some three-quarter court pressure, different ways that they guard in man.

“They’re really, really disruptive. They have a point guard (Tayton Conerway) who is really special, he’s the conference player of the year. And for BBN, you’ll know the name Chucky Hepburn (from Louisville), and he’s very similar to Chucky. He’s a rover on defense. He breaks every defensive rule, and he’s one of the leading steals guys in the country.”

Conerway, in particular, expects to be a thorn in Kentucky’s side. As the Sun Belt Player of the Year, he gets it done on both ends of the floor. After winning the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award last season, Conerway has been even better in 2024-25. He’s averaging 14.3 points, 4.8 assists, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.9 steals in 30.4 minutes per outing for Troy while shooting 47.2 percent from the field.

“In fact, in three of his last five games, he’s had five steals a game in three of his last five,” Pope said of Conerway. “That’s a ridiculous number. It’s incredible. He does it by breaking all the rules.”

Outside of Conerway, Troy’s frontcourt will be next on Pope’s scouting report. Three of Troy’s top four scorers are forwards. 6-foot-8 Thomas Dowd is the team’s “best” outside shooter (30.3 percent on 4.6 attempts per outing) and leading rebounder (6.8 RPG). 6-foot-8 Jackson Fields was 5-8 from deep in the Sun Belt semifinals against James Madison.

“They have bigs that really, really shoot the ball. They’re very dangerous,” Pope continued. “Their starting 5 two games ago was 5 for 8 from the 3-point line. He’s shooting up. Their starting 4 is a guy who will run off staggers, run off screens, run underneath out-of-bounds actions for him to get 3s. So they’re a little bit of inside-out. Their bigs are really dangerous shooters.”

Troy isn’t a team that constantly wants to push the pace. The Trojans rank 230th in the country in adjusted tempo. But when there is an opportunity to take advantage of a fastbreak, they’ll usually go for it. Pope is also prepared for Troy to be “10 times more physical” than what he’s seen on film.

“They’re really interesting because you’ll see this dichotomy,” Pope said. “The first night we watched a bunch of film and then in the morning, we started digging into the numbers. They walk the ball up after makes. They walk it up after makes. We go to their Synergy page, and 18.3 or 18.7 percent of their possessions are transition, which rivals Alabama. I was so shocked. I was like whoa, hold on. This team doesn’t feel like Alabama at all.

“Sure enough, after missing and after steals, they manufacture so much in transition. It’s a really good team. It’s well put together. It’s incredibly well-coached by Scott. He does a great job. It’s going to be a real challenge for us. I can keep going if you want me to. 17 questions, I gave a little longer answer.”

I think that will suffice, coach. You’ve just made one KSR fan extremely happy with that long-winded answer.

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