'Very few surprises' for Kentucky early, Mark Pope singles out veteran standouts

Summer is the time whispers of early practice standouts emerge, guys who maybe flew under the radar before move-in quickly becoming names to keep an eye on as the season approaches. Reed Sheppard was the big one last year, arriving as a long-term core piece before word leaked out when workouts began that the kid from the 606 was a player.

Then he became the No. 3 player in the 2024 NBA Draft.

Who is it gonna be this time around? Any big-time surprises to watch carefully? Mark Pope doesn’t think so.

In fact, he says everyone is playing exactly the way he hoped and anticipated. The first-year Kentucky coach didn’t want any surprises when he filled out the 12-man roster. When you have an endless amount of film on multi-year veterans, you want guys to bring something similar to the table on your squad — preferably better as system fits.

“There have been very few surprises in terms of what we thought we were getting, which is exciting,” Pope said. “The pieces fit. … That’s one of the things about working the portal is that you have such a clear — guys have a resume you can see over and over again what they do in college. Our guys have certainly lived up to that billing.”

Take Amari Williams for example, a three-time conference defensive player of the year out of Drexel. Sure, the blocked shots and alley-oop finishes stood out, but Pope was more intrigued by his passing ability as a five and how that fit into his offense.

Then when that vision came together in practice, the staff celebrated.

“We started recruiting Amari (Williams) even before we got here to Kentucky and what drew him to us was his ability to pass,” he said. “The very first time we stepped on the court, we were running some corner split actions and he started diming guys up. There was a reaction from everybody in the gym, and all of a sudden, everybody starts cutting harder.”

What’s been more impressive in his mind is his players’ ability to be coached, certainly with seven super seniors on the roster. With so many personalities coming from different programs, it’d be easy for the roster to be somewhat stuck in its ways. Instead, the team is learning and growing together, willing to adapt to change.

That was half the battle in his mind when he decided to take on a challenge of this magnitude.

“So there haven’t been a ton of surprising skill sets, but there have been — I’ve been really humbled, (Tuesday) we made a huge point. (Monday) we were meeting as a staff and sometimes you get veteran players and they’re less malleable and less coachable,” Pope said. “They’ve kind of done what they’ve done and do what they do, so they’re less responsive. The thing that’s been surprising is these guys have been incredibly willing to just grab onto any instruction and really run with it.”

Some of the standouts in that area? Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr and Otega Oweh.

“Some guys — I mean, there’s a bunch of guys that stick out,” he added. “What Lamont Butler has done in terms of just taking little pieces of advice and implementing them immediately has been so exciting. Andrew Carr, in the same way but in a different area of the game, has been incredible. Otega Oweh, I’ll tell you, we had some conversations over the last couple of days and he came out and had an unbelievable practice this morning.

“But it’s really wonderful to see these veteran guys and how excited they are to grow and learn and how willing they are to try new things.”

For this to all work, Pope says his players have to be an extension of the coaching staff when they’re on the floor. They have to be able to make the in-game adjustments and execute, taking a page out of Coach Cal’s book by expecting a “player-led” program.

When they can hold each other accountable and learn from mistakes, Pope and his staff don’t have to micromanage. That will be the key to success and the Wildcats finding their ceiling as a group.

“We believe in a player-led team in a player-led organization. We believe in leading from the middle, not from out front. What we do is we want to mentor these kids so they can be great leaders for themselves and hold each other accountable,” he said. “Our guys’ voices will always be more powerful than mine. That’s when you know you really have a team, when you really have it. When guys are on the court making decisions with each other and holding each other accountable, not looking over to the bench at me and seeing if they’re pleasing me or if they’re doing what I said.

“They’re doing what the game is teaching them to do. The game is the best teacher. When we talk about bringing these guys together, we’re talking about all those things. Our guys have done an incredible job spending spending time together.”