Kentucky nearly breaks defensive record in season-opening win over Nicholls

The offensive output was like watching grass grow or paint dry in the first half for Kentucky, putting up just 28 points with shooting splits of 32/13/46 while scoring .875 points per possession through 20 minutes. The Wildcats turned the ball over six times compared to just seven assists with only 15 combined points for the starters. It was a different story for the defense, though, Nicholls making just three baskets on 12/7/89 splits with three players scoring all of their points at the break.

Kentucky was bad, but Nicholls was worse — or the defense was that good, a point of emphasis coming off such a letdown effort on that end of the floor in the exhibition finale vs. Georgetown. There was a reason for that as it’s priority No. 1 in practice right now.

“All we do is work on the defensive end right now,” Mark Pope said following the 77-51 win. “We are going to spend a little bit of time on the offensive end.”

The numbers back that up, but what if I told you it was actually a near-historic defensive effort? The 51 total points allowed were Kentucky’s lowest of the Pope era with the Wildcats now 13-0 under the second-year coach when holding the opponent under 70 points.

More specifically, though, those 15 first-half points allowed were the fewest for a UK opponent in one half in Rupp Arena since Eastern Kentucky scored 14 in the first half back in 2014. It’s also the fewest overall for an opponent in one half since Abilene Christian finished with 13 in the first half of an NCAA Tournament game in 2019.

Pope had his eyes on the all-time Rupp Arena record, though. That mark holds firm at 11 points.

“I’m really excited about that,” Pope said. “We held them to 15 in the first half. The all-time record at UK is 11, so it was four points — two baskets short of that.  I like it. We started leaking a little bit in the second half and I thought overall it was a 10-kill game. It was the first time I’ve coached a team here that’s gotten 10 kills in a game. I was really proud of that.

“We can get so much better. Our defense is going to have to carry us at some points this season. And that’s okay, because they can be a real strength of ours and that’s going to be a fun piece of this game for us.”

There is confidence that everything will fall into place offensively, as planned, with Jaland Lowe back in the lineup and Jayden Quaintance coming a little later. They were one of the best teams in the country on that end of the floor last year and set the all-time Kentucky record for most made threes. They’ll figure that part out.

Defense will decide just how special this team can be — and whether the Wildcats can complete their assignment of banner No. 9.

“It will give us a chance to be special. We can do it,” Pope said. “We were treading water and barely staying engaged because of our defensive success. If we can ever get to a point where we are like, ‘If we can ever get to a point where we don’t even care if we score, we are getting a stop every single time down the floor,’ that would be actually a really fun team to coach. 

“This team, I don’t know if we are built exactly that way, but we might be built close. We might be built close. It’s a pretty fun way to play. It could be great.”

There wasn’t much to love against Georgetown, but plenty against Nicholls. That’s a testament to the Wildcats’ coachability and, in turn, their long-term potential.

“I was incredibly proud of our guys’ defensive spirit in the first half. We held Nicholls to 15 points in the first half — and the all-time record at Kentucky is 11. So we were close. I was really proud of our guys’ response at Georgetown. We felt like we were in a little bit of disarray defensive and I think the guys really rang the bell.

“We spent the last three days just trying to grow, grow, grow on the defensive side. I thought our guys came out and did a great job with that tonight.”