Mark Pope shortened his rotation vs. Indiana, but will it become a trend moving forward?

Mark Pope has been adamant about utilizing a deep bench. Whether that’s a winning strategy or not has come into question this season, but he elected to tighten things up down the stretch of a must-win game for Kentucky — and it ended up working in the Wildcats’ favor.

Pope went with a shortened rotation in Kentucky’s 72-60 win over Indiana on Saturday in Rupp Arena, particularly after halftime. Seven Wildcats still played 20 or more minutes, but the other three who took the floor received 16 minutes or fewer. Collin Chandler and Trent Noah both started the game but ended it with just 16 and 11 minutes played, respectively. Meanwhile, Otega Oweh tied his season-high with 33 minutes.

In the first half, Pope allowed more guys an opportunity to get a feel for the game. 10 different Kentucky players played in the opening 20 minutes, nine of them seeing at least seven minutes. In the second half, nine UK players took the floor, six of them registering at least 10 minutes. Oweh played all 20 second-half minutes, aided by long runs from Kam Williams (15 minutes), Jaland Lowe (15), Brandon Garrison (13), Mo Dioubate (13), and Denzel Aberdeen (10).

Andrija Jelavic didn’t play a single second in this game for the first time all season. Jasper Johnson finished with a season-low three minutes. The five-man lineup of Lowe, Oweh, Williams, Dioubate, and Garrison played nine minutes together against the Hoosiers and posted a +11, per CBB Analytics. Pope stuck with what was working.

“I actually had no idea where the rotation would go today,” Pope said postgame when asked about shortening the rotation. “I didn’t know how Kam was going to feel on the court today, I had no idea how Mo was going to feel on the court today. I did feel like there was space for Jela to be really effective in this game. I actually felt like it made some sense, he’s our most effective post player, especially at the 4, and this mucked-up game kind of felt that way…

“But that’s the nature of the game and what the game was calling for tonight. If we can embrace that, we can win a lot of different ways.”

Pope said in his pre-Indiana press conference that he’s hoping to stick with using an extended rotation, but he added that “we’ll see if we can actually get there”. He went away from that in the very next game, despite having a full roster (minus Jayden Quaintance) available for the first time since the Louisville game on Nov. 11. You can’t argue it wasn’t the right move, though. After being down seven at halftime, Kentucky outscored Indiana by 19 in the second half by primarily sticking with six players.

Kentucky certainly has plenty of depth, but the talent level of that depth hasn’t lived up to expectations early on this season. Especially with Quaintance inching closer to making his debut, cutting down the rotation to a top seven or eight (or even nine, depending on the situation) might be this team’s best option for winning games in the immediate future.

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