Mark Pope says 39 percent is the team's magic number defensively

Kentucky was always expected to be an offensive juggernaut under Mark Pope, the Wildcats firing away from three as fast as their arms could move with constant off-ball movement in a read-and-react system. How would they be defensively, though? The staff started the portal cycle with back-to-back-to-back signings to address that end of the floor with Amari Williams, Lamont Butler and Otega Oweh, but would those individual additions be enough to establish a hard-nosed defensive identity as a team?

The sample size is small with just four games to work with, but Kentucky is allowing just 68.7 points per contest while scoring 93.3 per game on the other end. That’s been good enough for No. 13 and No. 35 in the KenPom offensive and defensive ratings, respectively, with the Wildcats sitting at No. 19 overall. Early signs indicate there is plenty of juice to work with on both ends for Pope’s squad to compete.

The key to that success? Kentucky has hit the coaching staff’s magic number on defense in all four wins to open the season: 39.

“There were some things I loved in the first half,” Pope said of his team’s defensive effort vs. Lipscomb. “First of all, we kept them under 39 percent — barely. We tried desperately to get them over 39 percent in the last five minutes, but we hung in there and got them to 38.8 percent. That’s really important, that’s our mark. I think we are four for four on that stat.”

Kentucky opened the season holding Wright State to 35.3 percent overall, then kept Bucknell at 39.7 percent before Duke finished 39.4 percent from the field — never breaking that 40 percent barrier. That led to another 38.8 percent mark for Lipscomb, although the 20 points allowed in the final six minutes with the role players in made it too close for comfort.

For the first 34 minutes, though, the Cats were excellent defensively. It was a tough assignment taking on a complicated Lipscomb offense and Kentucky locked things down with focus being where it needed to be for the most part.

“I thought we were there on the catch the whole night really — well minus the pick-and-pop situations with their five men, which was kind of a calculated decision on our part that worked in our favor,” Pope said. “I was happy about challenging shots, for sure, both inside the three and outside. I was really proud of us in the first half. We only gave up one back-door and this is a great cutting team.  Actually, they are almost 10 percent — almost 10 percent, either nine or 11 percent of their possessions are cuts, which is really high. 

“Guys, you don’t see that a lot. And it’s not dunker spot cuts. This is like real, real cuts. That way they are similar to us. We only gave up one in the entire first half, I was really proud of that. And our guys were actually able to handle — they punish you because their scheme is you either have to race through handoffs and ball screens to get over top, or if you try to beat ’em to it, then it’s a backdoor situation. Our guys’ train tracks concepts were great tonight in the first half, I was really proud of that.

“We only gave up three offensive rebounds in the first half, although they were only sending one guy.  But still, that’s a good number for us.”

Slip-ups? Sure — but the players are human. The foundation is strong, though, and the approach is where it needs to be. Four games in, he’s thrilled with where things stand on the defensive end.

“So there’s a lot to be really pleased about on the defensive end. I would like us to — we had some stretches in the second half where were not as laser focused as we want to be,” Pope said. “I’d like us to really develop a standard where it doesn’t matter what time or score is, that we are locked in on that. It doesn’t matter who’s on the floor, we are locked in defensively the whole time. For the most part, I’m really proud of the guys defensive effort tonight.”

Does it help when the offense is humming the way Kentucky’s is night in and night out? It sure doesn’t hurt.