Pope: "We're reconsidering everything"

Coming off one of the worst losses in program history, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope says the Wildcats may need some big changes.

Speaking Monday during his weekly radio show, Pope said last week’s embarrassing 94-59 loss to Gonzaga in Nashville — a game that led to his team being roundly booed on several occasions — suggests that staying the course is not working for the 5-4 Wildcats.

“It’s a major overhaul, reconstruction,” he said. “… I love this group. I think that when it’s all said and done, this group is going to accomplish great things. But, man, it’s hard right now, and we’re reconsidering everything.”

Pope used words like “salty” and “angry” to describe what was otherwise a productive practice on Monday. He also noted that senior guard Otega Oweh had one of the best practice sessions he’s seen during his two years at UK, and that transfer guard Denzel Aberdeen also impressed him with his approach.

“The solution is to go play great basketball,” he said. “That’s the only thing that matters. And the solution is to be committed to each other and to fight for each other. That’s the solution. There’s no massaging it, or, you know, trying to talk somebody through it, it’s like, go prove it.”

Kentucky, which is now 0-4 against ranked opponents, is preparing to face outmanned North Carolina Central (3-8) on Tuesday night at Rupp Arena. That game will not likely tell Big Blue Nation much about the Cats, but it could reveal some hints about the direction Pope & Co. are going in terms of lineup combinations and offensive sets.

UK suffered through a 7-for-63 (11%) shooting stretch spanning the second half of the North Carolina game and most of the Gonzaga game.

“It’s not where you want to be at this point in the season,” Pope said, “where you’re trying to rethink everything you do. There’s a lot of things that we know we can get done. We’re learning about ourselves.”

One of the biggest areas of concern — outside of the numerous injuries to point guard Jaland Lowe (shoulder), power forward Mouhamed Dioubate (ankle), and center Jayden Quaintance (knee rehab) — is the lack of offensive production at the 4 spot.

Sophomores Kam Williams and Andrija Jelavic, who have both shown signs of breaking out in recent games, combined for no points on 0-for-9 shooting while playing 30 combined minutes in the Gonzaga debacle. The duo is a combined 10-for-51 from the 3-point arc this season. Injured starter Dioubate is 1-for-11.

With Kentucky expecting the return of Quaintance toward the end of December, figuring out what direction to go with the 4 spot seems to be a major priority.

“He has a chance to have a really, really, really massive positive impact on this team,” Pope said of Quaintance, touting his vision and passing ability from the post.

“We’re going to make a little bit of a shift (with the other positions) over the next several weeks… We’re in a search boat. We haven’t found a lot that’s worked really well. We’re not getting production in some spaces where we really need to get some.

“As a coach, sometimes you’re just not getting production because you haven’t got it yet, but then you wonder how long you’re gonna have to wait to action get production to start showing up. So you don’t want to bail too early, but you can’t hang on too late. So we’re making some shifts right now to try and explore some different things.”