Mark Pope scouts Bucknell, a fast-paced veteran team with shooters at all 5 positions

Mark Pope and his staff have dove deep into the Bucknell tape. He’ll have Kentucky’s next opponent scouted quite well when the Bison come to Rupp Arena on Saturday.

What should the Big Blue Nation expect to see from the opponent when the Wildcats take the floor in a couple of days? Pope gave us some insight during his Thursday press conference.

For some background context, Bucknell, led by second-year head coach John Griffin III, was picked to finish fourth in the Patriot League prior to the season. 7-foot junior center Noah Williamson was a Third Team All-Patriot League member as a sophomore and was tabbed to the Preseason First Team going into 2024-25. The native of Latvia went for 19 points and 12 rebounds on 6-8 shooting in Bucknell’s 85-73 season-opening win over Delaware on Monday. The Bison actually trailed that game for nearly all of the first 36 minutes before closing on a 12-0 run to seal the victory.

Bucknell returns a bevy of players from last season’s roster that finished just 14-19 with a 10-8 mark in the Patriot League — Griffin’s first as head coach. All but three members (one being First Team All-Patriot League performer Jack Forrest) from 2023-24 are back in 2024-25. This is a veteran group that returns over 70 percent of its scoring.

“Good team, veteran team. Three seniors, two juniors. But more importantly, guys that have been together for a long time,” Pope said of Bucknell. “You look at their roster: four-year guy, four-year guy, four-year guy, at Bucknell, which is super cool. It’s a real credit to the program and to the staff and to the players. And so we have a veteran group that has played together for a long time, that understands what they’re trying to do.”

Pope says Bucknell is a team that wants to play quickly, similar to how Kentucky rolls out its offense. The Bison have shooters spread all throughout the floor, using constant actions to get those guys open for clean looks. Kentucky will have to remain disciplined on defense when tracking so much movement. Just stopping the first action won’t be enough — Bucknell will immediately go into second and third and fourth actions from the moment the first one doesn’t hit.

“They get pretty deep into the actions and have a good sense of what they’re doing. I think it’s creative stuff,” Pope said. “They have some explosive scorers, really capable backcourt, a big (Willamson) who holds down the middle really, really well. Can shoot it. They shoot it from all five positions. So good team and it’ll be another good challenge for us.”

Bucknell went 10-19 from deep against Delaware earlier this week. Senior guard Josh Bascoe was a perfect 4-4. Five different Bison hit a three-pointer. Bucknell also got to the line 27 times in that win, 10 of them coming from Williamson. In the 85-73 win over Delaware, 38 points came from the paint, 30 from beyond the arc, and 17 from the free throw line — that’s all 85 points. No mid-range shots or long twos.

Sound familiar?

Pope will have an additional 40 minutes of film to work with too before Bucknell makes its way to Lexington. The Bison will be in Evansville, IN tonight for a matchup with Southern Indiana (0-1) at 8:00 p.m. EST on ESPN+. Tune in if you want to see Pope’s scouting report in action for yourself.

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