WKU looked to slow down Kentucky from three, but 'offense is very difficult and poses a lot of challenges'

It was Kentucky‘s ugliest game of the season on the offensive end of the floor, the Wildcats shooting just 40.3 percent overall and 27.6 percent from three with 11 turnovers compared to 16 assists. They still put up 87 points — a good day for most programs — but for this team and staff, it was a slugfest that felt a little too close for comfort, even in a 19-point home victory.

That was the expectation coming in, though. Western Kentucky is a well-coached team that likes to ‘change up their defenses a lot’ with ‘a lot of aggressive defenders,’ as Koby Brea put it going into the matchup. They said it’d be ‘similar in a way to Duke,’ and it wound up being the team’s toughest game of the early non-conference schedule outside of that win in the Champions Classic.

“It’s a good team. It’s an NCAA tournament team, returning eight guys from a team that made an unbelievable run down the stretch last season to go win their conference tournament, go to the NCAA tournament,” Mark Pope said after the matchup. “Played really, really hard, heavy, heavy pressure.  I thought they were terrific tonight. They are going to have a really great season.”

That was the hope for Western Kentucky under first-year coach Hank Plona. The Hilltoppers would have preferred a big-time upset, obviously, but as 22-point underdogs at tip-off, they at least wanted to show the world their grit and toughness — certainly no pushovers. They were going to give the Wildcats their best shot, proving why they made the field of 68 last March and plan to do so again this time around.

WKU only shot 31.8 percent overall and 15.4 percent from three, but no one can say the Tops weren’t disruptive on the other end.

“Obviously, the game bottom line at the end you know we are a returning NCAA Tournament team, so we play every game to win,” Plona said. “Kentucky is — as I am sure most of you know — an impressive bunch. Disappointed in that I thought we had the game within seven there in the second half and obviously there are some moments we thought we could have executed and completed a couple plays and hang in there a little bit more. At the same time, all in all, pleased with our fight and reliance, pleased with our effort, approach, and attitude.

“Obviously, they shoot the ball really well and they have a lot to do with that. But all in all, pretty pleased with our performance tonight and something we can use to improve and get us back to the tournament, which is our ultimate goal.”

Plona said the matching pace of top-15 tempos nationally was difficult for the Hilltoppers, something they’re not used to seeing as one of the fastest teams in college basketball in their own right. Usually they can control the flow of the game, but instead, the Wildcats were right there to take the wheel.

One missed shot from deep or around the rim, maybe a call they expected to get and let the officials know about it, Kentucky was already back on the other end scoring itself. That was quite the adjustment.

“I mean basketball is a game that is connected offense and defense. … They are a very difficult team to guard,” he said. “They’ve got four guys on the floor that can shoot at all times and at least one guy that’s among the best 3-point shooters in college basketball. So they stretch you out a little bit and we were trying to pressure while protecting the rim. They were slipping and cutting to the basket quite a bit. Their offense is very difficult and poses a lot of challenges, to be perfectly honest with you guys.”

His team likes to play fast, so it didn’t necessarily hurt them, but it certainly held them accountable. He thought the Hilltoppers responded well when it became a track meet while also mucking things up in the half-court, when necessary.

When trading haymakers, though, WKU just didn’t have the juice UK did. When things got tight, that six-point lead with 11:54 to go ballooned to 16 just over three minutes later before going as high as 21 in the final minutes. Close, but no cigar.

“Good things happened, but that in between was a struggle for us when we didn’t get a breakpoint. Our offense got a little stagnant or tired, we didn’t get much movement and we took a rushed shot. These guys really make you pay for that, so they were able to get some runouts from that and kind of extend that lead back up.”

Kentucky wanted to get up at least 35 3-pointers in this one, but only managed 29 with eight makes — a season low. That was Western Kentucky’s game plan, what they thought to be the key to an upset.

The Wildcats found ways to beat them elsewhere, but the Hilltoppers certainly gave it their best shot inside Rupp Arena on Tuesday. 

“Guarding the 3-point line was certainly our main focus coming into the game,” Plona continued. “Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson and Koby Brea are elite shooters. I mean elite, elite shooters. They have five of the eight that are aggressive, the rest of the team had three. We were trying to hold them to one each, we really wanted to set the goal at zero, but we thought if it was two combined we would be in good shape. But 8-of-29 is accomplishing our goal.”

Pope says WKU deserves credit for executing that game plan to near perfection and making life difficult for his squad in the BBN Invitational finale.

“I’m proud of how our guys responded and kept grinding and grinding and grinding away,” he said. “We felt like this was a great run, potentially a first round (postseason) game for us. That’s how the guys wanted to go into this game and it was exactly kind of what we wanted.

“There was a ton of frustration oozing throughout the whole game and I thought our guys did a great job of staying together and just kind of being okay with just going to move on to the next play. We certainly didn’t play close to perfect, but I thought the guys were in it the whole time.”

It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done while also serving as a learning opportunity. That’s about all you can hope for in a late-November mid-major matchup.