Mark Pope says Kentucky's ball screen defense improved against Brown, but it's still 'an ongoing process.'

You’re going to get tired of hearing the phrase “ball screen defense” sooner rather than later. Mark Pope is going to continue drilling it into his players’ heads until they hear it in their dreams. It’s all he’s done in practice since Kentucky lost to Ohio State nearly two weeks ago in New York City. The Buckeyes torched UK in the pick-and-roll en route to a 20-point win.

“I think there was probably some points during the last week,” Pope said Tuesday night. “Where all of our guys were struggling to remember if there was anything involved in the game of basketball except for ball screen defense.”

Jaxson Robinson and Lamont Butler shared on Monday that practice since the Ohio State loss has been nothing but ball screen defense. Kentucky improved in that area during an 88-54 win over Brown on Tuesday night, even if the competition level was a significant step down from what the Buckeyes brought to the table. Amari Williams said after the Brown win that the opening 30 minutes of the first two practices back from Christmas break focused only on ball screen defense.

“It was something (Pope) emphasized a lot and made sure we was working on,” Williams said. “I feel like it showed today and it’s only going to get better.”

Mark Pope talks Kentucky's ball screen defense against Brown. Gives an individual shoutout to Andrew Carr. pic.twitter.com/aVyiOg3Vqr

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Ball screen defense isn’t something that’s easily trackable (or obtainable) from a statistical perspective. You have to pay top dollar for that type of analytical access. But the eye test can show just as much. It doesn’t take long to notice a team getting exposed in the pick-and-roll over and over again. Ohio State was living off of it. It’s not just the guard and the big defending the ball screen either. Pope needs the other three Wildcats to be just as active in helping while still staying close enough to shooters.

But Pope saw things he liked on Tuesday. He says Kentucky recorded a season-high in deflections against Brown. UK’s 14 steals were also a season-high. The Wildcats were incredibly active with their hands on defense, especially when anyone from Brown attempted to wiggle into the paint. Not all of that was a result of good ball screen defense, but it certainly played a factor. Pope recalled one play where Andrew Carr perfectly executed a ball screen defensive possession by tagging the roll man and quickly helping off to cover a shooter that resulted in a deflection.

“It’s little moments like that where we are like, okay, we are cooking, we are getting better. We’re getting better, right?” Pope said. “That’s all we care about. Can we get better? And these guys did.”

By no means was the pick-and-roll defense against Brown perfect from start to finish, but Pope is looking for signs of improvement. He saw that against the Bears. The more he ingrains ball screen defense into his players’ heads, the more improvement he expects to see moving forward. It’ll need to happen fast with SEC play beginning on Saturday.

“We repped and repped and repped and to our guys’ credit, they really worked on it,” Pope added. “The greatest players in the world are trying to figure out how to guard ball screens in different scenarios. This is going to be an ongoing process. But I was incredibly proud of our guys, the way they managed it tonight I thought it was elite and I thought their communication was terrific on the defensive end and when we did make some mistakes on cutters away from ball screens, I thought our guys did a great job with hands helping each other.”

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