Mark Pope Says He Wants to Play Kentucky's Bench More After Loss to Georgia

Kentucky relied heavily on its starting lineup in an 86-78 loss to Georgia on Tuesday night. That’s something Mark Pope is looking to change.

“Well, we don’t have that many players, first of all,” Pope said postgame. “We’ve got to find a way to get our guys’ minutes down.”

Kentucky was led by Otega Oweh, who played 35 minutes, Collin Chandler, who played 34 minutes, and Denzel Aberdeen, who played 32 minutes in the loss. Meanwhile, Malachi Moreno also played 28 minutes.

“We probably can’t have Otega at 38 [minutes] and DA [Denzel Aberdeen] at 36 because our performance suffers as those guys get fatigued,” Pope said.

Kentucky only had eight bench points in the loss. Without Jaland Lowe, Jayden Quaintance, and Kam Williams, UK has shortened its rotation, and it’s resulted in some “poor offensive possessions.”

“We had some poor offensive possessions where we bailed on our transition defense assignments,” Pope said. “It’s just as simple as that. You cannot take plays off in this league. You can’t get distracted, especially when it’s the number one thing on the board we have to accomplish, which is consistently, every single possession, being in transition defense. We just allowed ourselves to get distracted.”

Georgia Spread the Wealth

While Kentucky relied heavily on its starters, Georgia was able to spread out its minutes a little more. The Bulldogs had six players with at least 20 minutes of playing time, while three additional players had double-digit minutes in the game.

That was a big reason why Georgia was able to outscore Kentucky 29-8 in bench points on Tuesday. Jeremiah Wilkinson was the highlight of Georgia’s bench effort, making the most of his 26 minutes.

Wilkinson, a 6-foot-1 guard, had 19 points, three rebounds, and three assists in the Georgia win. 10 of his points came during his 14-second-half minutes. He had missed the past two games with a shoulder injury.