The Big Blue Nation wanted a modern offense out of Mark Pope and that’s exactly what they got — through one preseason game, at least.
Kentucky shot the ball about as well as anyone could have asked for in the first exhibition of the 2024-25 season, a dominant 71-point win against an overmatched Kentucky Wesleyan group. The Wildcats shot 79 percent from two-point range (27-34) and 50 percent from beyond the arc (21-42). The result was 123 total points on 48 made shots, which came off 32 assists to just five turnovers. UK scored on just a hair under 70 percent of its total possessions.
We call that efficiency.
Other than a 6-9 mark from the free throw line, Kentucky was about as perfect as possible considering the situation. The shot chart paints an even clearer picture though. The graphic below shows every shot attempted by a Kentucky player against KWC — the left side showing the second half and the right side showing the first half. Black dots indicate a make while white dots indicate a miss.
What stands out?
See all that untouched gray — on both sides — in between the perimeter and the paint? Notice how few white and black dots there are in this area? That’s by design.
On the left side, we see just one dot in that area: a made shot right off the block from center Amari Williams. On the right, we see a pair of mid-range jumpers from Jaxson Robinson, one a make and the other a miss. All this is to say that 119 of Kentucky’s 123 points against KWC came from one of three spots: three-pointers, inside the paint, or free throws.
“What I like is most of the shots were earned,” Pope said after the win. “There wasn’t a lot of belligerent shooting. There was a lot of shots that were earned. We earned them a bunch of different ways and we earned them by racing the space and by screening and earning by finishing cuts.”
A good chunk of Kentucky’s points came via transition. The Wildcats forced 18 turnovers and turned that into 39 fastbreak points. Kentucky Wesleyan didn’t exactly put up a challenge in Pope’s debut on either end of the floor. So while we shouldn’t take anything too seriously from just one exhibition, we at least saw Pope’s offensive plan in action.
And it was beautifully executed.
