Mark Pope credits Mikhail McLean for coming up with defensive game plan vs. Mississippi State

Kentucky managed to hold Mississippi State to just 68 points during Saturday’s 24-point win inside Rupp Arena.

That marked the second-fewest points the Bulldogs have scored all season long. Mississippi State still shot the ball well from the field on paper (48.2 percent), but that can be attributed to a hot shooting start through the first eight minutes. MSU shot under 40 percent in the second half. For the game, they went just 3-20 from deep while turning the ball over 15 times. Star guard Josh Hubbard posted 20 points on 7-16 shooting, his fewest in a game since Dec. 20.

Kentucky’s offense dropping 92 points was the highlight of the win, but allowing just 68 points (UK’s fewest since the win over St. John’s) on defense was equally impressive. Head coach Mark Pope gave all the defensive game plan credit to his assistant coach, Mikhail McLean.

“I want to single out Mikhail McLean,” Pope said postgame. “This was his scout, and it was a different scout. We had a different defensive scheme that we’ve played all season long, in multiple ways, and I’ve been pestering him for the last 72 hours. I called him late last night, early this morning, four or five different times, pestering him with questions.

“And he was like, ‘Coach, trust me, this is the way we need to play this game. This is how we need to do it.’ He did an unbelievable job coming up with and implementing a game plan for our guys. We didn’t execute it very well the first five minutes, but we stuck with it, and the guys did much better as time went on.”

Kentucky was aggressive going after the Bulldog ball handlers and pushing them out to midcourt on ballscreens. 14 steals marked a season-high for the ‘Cats. MSU’s two leading scorers, Hubbard and Jayden Epps, were held to a combined 11-28 shooting clip, including a 3-15 mark from deep. After scoring 28 points in the first 10 minutes of the game (which saw UK go down by as many as a dozen), Mississippi State only scored another 40 points the rest of the way.

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“We had backup plan B, C, and D, and we never went away,” Pope added. “It’s hard as an assistant coach to have the confidence and the courage to take a stand and stay with your conviction. And huge kudos to Mikhail, just an unbelievable job on a scout.”

McLean is the youngster on Pope’s staff at just 34 years old. Standing 6-foot-8, he was a five-year forward at Houston (2010-15) before joining the coaching ranks. He worked closely with Amari Williams last season and serves as the associate head coach on the Bahamian National Team staff, specializing in defensive gameplanning.

With all that in mind, it’s not a shock to hear that Pope trusted McLean to think up Kentucky’s defensive approach in a must-win conference game.

“Big-time impact. His scout was to perfection,” freshman center Malachi Moreno, who finished with four steals in arguably his best game yet as a Wildcat, said of McLean. “We saw everything they were going to do, and that’s a testament to him. He gave us the recipe and we were able to finish the food. Big-time credit to Coach McLean. He’s our big coach, so he gave us the keys tonight and we were able to drive the car.”