4-Point Play: The plan is coming together for Mark Pope and Kentucky

Big Blue Nation panicked entering Mark Pope’s third weekend as Kentucky’s head coach with just three players on his debut roster, Collin Chandler, Travis Perry and Amari Williams rounding out the entire group. Ice Cube may love that trio for the BIG3, but UK fans were desperate for more — and quickly.

Pope quickly shut those concerns up, adding three pieces in three days with plenty on the horizon.

What does that look like and how did we get here? Let’s break it down tonight on 4-Point Play.

Championship experience with Lamont Butler

Pope himself won a national championship as a player back in 1996 while Alvin Brooks III did it as an assistant at Baylor in 2021. You’ve got a staff that knows what it takes to win at the highest level, but what about on the roster itself?

It’s pretty darn tough to find someone who did that better than Lamont Butler during his time at San Diego State, a guy who won seven NCAA Tournament games while also hitting the biggest shot in program history: a buzzer-beater in the 2023 Final Four to send the Aztecs to the Final Four. He didn’t score the most points, dish out the most assists or secure the most rebounds, but my goodness, did the 6-2 guard win games by defending his butt off and putting it all out there every second he saw the floor. Pope needed a leader and glue guy in the locker room, and he went on a top-secret mission to Las Vegas with his staff to lock his commitment down — and it was worth the effort.

Williams was already a three-time CAA Defensive Player of the Year, and then you go out and sign the reigning two-time Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year in Butler.

Physicality, toughness in Otega Oweh

You got arguably the best perimeter defender in the portal and followed it up by adding another absolute menace on that end, a guy who will guard 94 feet and brings a level of tenacity and toughness we just haven’t seen in a backcourt in Lexington since Cason Wallace or maybe even Isaiah Briscoe — his old coaches call him ‘Otega-Tron’ because “he was like a Transformer for us.”

Last year’s group was desperate for the exact traits Oweh brings to the table, and he’s also a high-level athlete with a growing three-point jumper. He went from shooting four total threes his freshman year to 53 as a sophomore while hitting 37.7% of those attempts while also going for double figures in 19 games, highlighted by a 23-point effort against North Carolina. The 6-4 guard signed with Oklahoma as a raw, but gritty defensive athlete, but is slowly finding his footing as an all-around scorer with legitimate 3&D upside.

Pope saw that Kentucky had a historically poor defensive team in 2023-24 and responded by adding two of the best players in the portal on that end of the floor.

Bring on the shooting, Andrew Carr

You had Williams, Butler and Oweh to anchor the defense, but where is the offense coming from? Insert Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr, a stretch four who racked up 1,000-plus points, 500-plus rebounds and 100-plus blocks across four seasons of D1 basketball. Standing 6-11, 230 pounds, the West Chester, Pennsylvania native averaged 13.5 points on 52.6% shooting and 37.1% from three on 2.8 attempts per contest — a true outside threat in Pope’s modern offense. His new head coach also singled out that he converted 66% of his two-point attempts, as well, as a “prototypical college and NBA power forward.

But he’s not limited to shooting and scoring. Carr is also a solid rim protector at 1.5 blocks per contest while also doing some interesting things as a facilitator and keeping turnovers down.

You’re not asking him to come in and be the star, but if you’re looking for a productive leader with experience as a captain at every stop who fits this system, Carr is a best-case scenario addition for the Wildcats.

Osobor, Brea and Robinson are next

Two weeks into the Pope era, Kentucky has added six strong pieces to lay the foundation of this roster, but it’s fair to say it’s missing both quality and quantity with star power and depth. That’s what these next few days and weeks are for, starting now.

Utah State star Great Osobor is on campus now and the Wildcats are a top threat to land his commitment, though trips to Louisville, Texas Tech and Washington remain to close out the week. That recruitment is expected to move quickly at the conclusion of his nationwide tour — his family is in from England for this process, so it’s fair to expect him to see it through. His addition would give you an instant double-double machine in Lexington.

Dayton’s Koby Brea is also arrived on campus Monday evening and the Wildcats have quickly emerged as a serious contender for his services, as well. He’s the top three-point specialist in the portal by a mile and an instant plug-and-play piece for Pope — think Kellan Grady a few years back. You know exactly what he can and will do in blue and white, a massive addition potentially on the table with a decision on the horizon. The quicker the better for Kentucky as other suitors have fallen off in recent days after cutting his list to UConn, Duke, North Carolina and Kansas to go with the Cats.

And then there’s BYU star Jaxson Robinson, who officially entered the portal Monday and is now one of the best available players in the portal. The Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year averaged a team-high 14.2 points while shooting 42.6% from the field, 35.4% from deep (6.9 attempts per game), and 90.8% at the line — a professional bucket-getter. That’s why he’s testing the draft waters along with exploring his transfer options. Kentucky is widely considered the favorite there, no matter how wide-open he may claim to be publicly. The portal is a whirlwind and momentum shifts on a dime, but the Wildcats wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) trade positions with anyone else as he figures out what he wants to do next.

Pope is off to a phenomenal start, but things could get a whole lot better in a hurry.