Pace, defense has Pope's attention in Kentucky's summer workouts

After watching his Kentucky squad go through the first five weeks of summer workouts, Mark Pope says he believes the Wildcats could be special in two areas.

One of them is already developing before his eyes.

“I think we have some space to find some great pace with this team, actually for a lot of reasons,” Pope said Monday at the Craft Center. “One, because we have personnel that I think have motors. I think we have some guys with special motors.”

Pope elaborated: “I think we have some depth that we could really rely on that’s gonna help us. I think we have a versatile group of bigs, once they’re all together, that I think has a chance to be really special and attack the game in several different ways. So, I like the possibility of pace.”

“Unbelievable jets”

Transfer point guard Jaland Lowe brings an attack mentality and elite speed to the Cats after playing the last two years at Pittsburgh. He’ll be flanked by athletic wings like Otega Oweh, Collin Chandler, and Denzel Aberdeen, among others, who have demonstrated the ability to play at a higher tempo than Pope’s first UK team displayed.

“We had possessions where Jaland Lowe ran by everybody on the court in transition to get to the rim, and he’s got unbelievable jets,” Pope said, adding “… I think we have a chance to have a really dynamic backcourt.”

The Cats were No. 10 in offensive efficiency but ranked 32nd nationally last season in adjusted tempo.

To reach that desired pace, the other area that Pope cited on Monday sounds like a work in progress.

“Massively important”

“I thought this team had a terrific chance to grow into a great defensive team,” he said. “We have a long way to go on that, but I think we can get there.”

There have been moments that made Pope wonder if he has overestimated the Cats’ defensive potential, but he is not budging from his stance.

In a scrimmage against UK’s “La Familia” TBT squad, the Cats surrendered a gaudy 1.8 points per possession in the first quarter after settling in to play better defense in a six-point win against the team featuring several former UK standouts.

“It was brutal. We didn’t guard anybody,” Pope said. “… We’re a million miles away from being the (defensive) team we think we can be.”

Defense hurt Kentucky last season and likely cost it at least one seed line. The Cats finished 51st nationally in defensive efficiency and ranked near the 100 mark before showing vast improvement late in the year.

“Our legal contests have been a little bit slower to develop,” said Pope, who is currently without one of the nation’s top shot blocker in the form of transfer center Jayden Quaintance due to rehab from knee surgery. “That’s massively important. One of the things that we have to do is our defensive field goal percentage has to be better next year, so we’re dedicated to having a legal contest on every single field goal attempt (in practice). Every single one.”

Kentucky allowed an effective field goal percentage of 50.3 last season, which ranked 149th nationally.

The foundation

The Kentucky boss compared the process to building a house.

“The bet that we’re making is that, if we spend an extraordinary amount of time on the foundation, in a really new but 100% way, that the framing of the house and the finish of the house is actually going to go way faster, and it’s going to be way more palacial, and the resale value is going to be incredible,” Pope said.

“… But if you walk up to a house and all you see is the foundation, it’s not very inspiring. Right? So we’re spending a massive amount of time and energy and focus on the foundation, making the best, deepest, most sure foundation that we possibly can and trusting that the next steps are going to go faster and that we’ll have a better product.”