"Back up! Back up!" What happened in Kentucky's 5-on-5 scrimmage in Rupp Arena

Mark Pope opened the doors to Kentucky Basketball to a select group on Wednesday afternoon. In a rare gesture of access, Pope invited everyone who covers the program, plus one immediate family member or all of their children, to Rupp Arena for a special Family Day event, which included an afternoon press conference followed by the team’s full 90-minute practice. It came just one day before the Wildcats’ final preseason game against Georgetown, and for those lucky enough to attend, it offered an inside look at how Pope runs his program as the regular season approaches.

After the Q&A, during which Pope allowed only kids and family to ask questions, staff members escorted the group from the media room into Rupp Arena to watch practice unfold. The highlight was a five-minute, full-court scrimmage that felt more like the real thing.

Before tipoff, Pope’s staff turned up the artificial crowd noise to near-game levels, while an eager crowd of beat writers, bloggers, TV and radio personalities, along with their friends and family, watched on from the first five rows behind the benches.

Three players—Jayden Quaintance, Jaland Lowe, and Denzel Aberdeen (a surprise scratch for an undisclosed reason)—wore uniforms but sat out, while Reece Potter practiced but didn’t take part in the scrimmage itself due to numbers. That left 10 guys to split into Blue vs. White for an unexpectedly loud and competitive preview of what’s to come.

Lineups

Blue Team

• Collin Chandler
• Otega Oweh
• Trent Noah
• Mo Dioubate
• Brandon Garrison

White Team

• Jasper Johnson
• Braydon Hawthorne
• Kam Williams
• Andrija Jelavic
• Malachi Moreno

Scrimmage opening

The Blue Team struck first on the game’s first possession. Collin Chandler took Moreno off the dribble, started a few passes around the perimeter, and watched Oweh drive and drop it off to Garrison on the block for an easy two.

White answered when Hawthorne found Jelavic on the block for an up-and-under finish, tying things up 2–2. The entry pass was nearly intercepted by Noah, but Jelavic recovered for a score.

Chandler, running Pope’s spread offense for Blue, came off an Oweh screen and drilled a smooth three from the left wing to make it 5–2. A few possessions later, after Johnson and Dioubate traded missed threes, Johnson responded with a contested three over Garrison to even it at 5–5.

Out of a timeout, Chandler and Noah fumbled a simple backcourt pass, turning it over to White on an unforced error. However, Jelavic couldn’t connect on a three from the corner to capitalize on Blue’s mistake.

Kam Williams’ steal-and-slam (nearly twice)

The pace picked up from there. Kam Williams helped out to swipe the ball on a wild drive from Oweh and turned it into a fast-break dunk. Williams nearly did it again seconds later, but a whistle stopped him shy of his second straight steal-and-slam, bringing the ball back due to a foul called by one of the assistant coaches.

Oweh bounced back from the turnover with a confident three from the top of the key, giving Blue an 8–7 lead with a minute and a half to go.

Then, Johnson made one of the nicest moves of the scrimmage, a crossover into a step-back three that rattled out, before Moreno grabbed the rebound and missed the putback. Dioubate took it the other way in a hurry for Blue, only for Oweh to miss a layup in transition that could’ve put his team up by three.

Williams from long range, Dioubate’s response

With under a minute left and both teams rushing back up the court, Williams pulled up from deep and buried a long three to swing it back in White’s favor, 10–8. The crowd (the real one, not the one heard through the speakers) really got into the action as it became clear a thrilling finish was ahead.

Dioubate missed an open corner three that could’ve retaken the lead with 40 seconds left. He made up for it, though, when he jumped a passing lane and drew a foul on Jelavic before a breakaway dunk. Dioubate tied the game at the free throw line with the crowd noise (both real and fake) pumping.

Exciting finish

After Dioubate’s game-tying free throw, Blue committed a foul 90 feet from the basket by holding Johnson as Johnson tried to break free to receive the inbounds pass. The foul was committed in a tie game, and no time came off the clock as Johnson sank the front end of the one-and-one, then the second to give White a two-point lead.

Trailing 12–10 with 24 seconds left, Chandler ran one last play for Blue. Trent Noah cut from the paint to the arc, pump-faked Hawthorne into the air, side-stepped left into an open three, and at the last second dumped it off to Garrison for a two-hand dunk to tie it 12–12.

Johnson’s deep heave from the K missed at the buzzer, sending the five-minute scrimmage into overtime.

Overtime

Then came the best moment of the scrimmage. As Dioubate caught the ball at the top of the key on the first possession of overtime, the White team and its bench yelled, “Back up, Malachi, back up!” daring Dioubate to take the open three.

So, he did.

Dioubate rose, fired, and buried the three, then immediately turned to the bench and yelled it right back: “Back up, Malachi, back up!”

Count the "back ups" before Mo Diobuate says it back pic.twitter.com/XExVMKVIUg

— Drew Franklin (@DrewFranklinKSR) October 29, 2025

Assistant coach Mikhail McLean shouted back, “Is that really what you drew up?”

McLean’s White team had a chance to tie, but Williams missed wide left coming off a screen on a straightaway three.

Pope blew the scrimmage dead there at 15-12, ending a few back-and-forth minutes that felt like a real game. The fake crowd noise faded, and it was back to Pope’s voice and the next drill. Still, the brief 5-on-5 was an exciting glimpse at the team and many of its pieces. I would’ve taken you as my guest if I could’ve.