When the 3-pointers aren't falling, Kentucky is going to keep shooting them

Through two preseason games of the Mark Pope era, Kentucky has fired off 79 three-pointers. The Wildcats knocked in 34 of them, resulting in a 43 percent clip. It’s not a sustainable number across an entire season, but certainly an encouraging start.

The makes come in deadly waves, too. On Tuesday night against Minnesota State, Kentucky made six three-pointers in less than four minutes right before halftime, turning a three-point lead into a 20-point halftime advantage. In the blink of an eye, Kentucky’s route was on.

That’s something the Big Blue Nation should get accustomed to.

But on the flip side, fans should also get accustomed to some three-point shooting droughts. That’s simply the reality of a system that emphasizes so many outside shots. Kentucky averaged nearly 40 three-pointers per outing through the two exhibitions. Not all of them can go in. But Pope knows that eventually, they will.

And when they do, the entire landscape of the game will change in favor of the ‘Cats. Why? Because as long as Kentucky is taking the “right” shots, Pope believes that basketball karma will reward his team. In both of the exhibitions, UK started 3-12 and 2-13 from deep. They finished shooting better than 35 percent in both.

“I wasn’t really thrilled with us in the first half from the three-point line,” Pope said postgame. “I felt like it was – it happens all the time. It happens to every team I’ve ever coached. You go bang 21 (three-pointers) and you think, we’re just gonna — it’s like everything in the supermarket is free. Just grab it and throw it in the bag. Right? It’s not that.

“We did a much better job as the game went on about earning shots for each other. There is a huge difference. It might be imperceptible difference when you just isolate shots. But how you earn those shots matter. The karma of this game matters. It is wildly important. I thought we did a much better job as the game went on. About just getting back to like, hey, let’s go work on this game and let’s go fight to earn each other great shots.”

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As Pope mentioned, he wasn’t a fan of how Kentucky was getting off its three-pointers early against Minnesota State. But his team adjusted and the results back it up. However, sometimes even the good attempts won’t fall. It’s all about staying calm, cool, and collected when they don’t.

A single made three-pointer can be the spark that initiates a 15-0 run and buries Kentucky’s opponent.

“We’re going to go 2 for 13 in the first nine minutes sometimes from the three-point line, when it is shots that we are earning. And we’re going to keep shooting,” Pope said. “It’s a beautiful way to play and what BBN is going to learn is they’re gonna just be like okay, this is really hard right now but it’s coming. Like, it’s coming. And there will suddenly be a barrage of makes and it’s mayhem and chaos and chaos in the gym and we just know it’s coming. We train that way. We study that way. We work that way. It’s really important.”

Pope will never chastise his team for taking good three-point attempts. But he sure will when those misses aren’t being chased after. Kentucky has just 15 offensive rebounds through two preseason games compared to 18 for the opponents. Pope said he was “disappointed” in the Wildcats’ effort on the offensive glass. A few more offensive rebounds could lead to a few more shots from deep.

If Kentucky can amp it up a bit more in that area, it should only boost the Wildcats’ three-point attack even more.

Watch the latest Mark Pope press conference on the KSR YouTube Channel.