Mark Pope is struggling to find right lineups: 'I just haven't been able to put the pieces together'

Mark Pope just can’t seem to hit the right buttons with his rotations right now. Early-season injuries to Jaland Lowe and Trent Noah have surely played a role in that, but not enough for the results to be what we’ve seen from Kentucky so far this season.

Tuesday night’s 83-66 loss to No. 17 Michigan State in the Champions Classic was just the latest example of a head coach still unsure of what works best on the floor. According to CBB Analytics, Pope used 19 different five-man lineups vs. the Spartans and has used 70 different five-man lineups (including the few walk-on minutes) through five regular-season games. Against Michigan State, only three of those 19 lineups played together for at least five minutes throughout the game. Pope’s substitutions came early and often.

Through the first two segments of the night, the right pieces were working well enough; Kentucky was even leading 17-14 with 13:36 left in the first half. But then came more changes. A little over two minutes later, Pope put in four bench pieces to play next to Brandon Garrison, and Michigan State suddenly hit a groove. By the time Pope went back to what was originally working, Kentucky was having to play catch-up.

He was asked in the postgame press conference why the offense is struggling to find continuity.

“I’m going to take the hit for this,” Pope said. “I’ve got guys that are skilled, talented players. They care a lot, and I just haven’t been able to put the pieces together quite right yet.”

Perhaps the issue is that he’s trying to use far too many pieces for a puzzle that doesn’t have enough spots to fit them all. There are a ton of mouths to feed, and Pope hasn’t done a good job so far of keeping them all full while also remaining competitive against good teams. 11 different Wildcats are averaging over 13 minutes per game. None of them averages more than 26 minutes per game. Being able to build real on-court chemistry feels short of impossible right now.

In the losses to Michigan State and Louisville, Kentucky used 36 different five-man lineups. The only one that played more than six minutes together was the starting five of Otega Oweh, Denzel Aberdeen, Collin Chandler, Mo Dioubate, and Garrison. That group posted a combined plus/minus of -13 in 18 minutes against the Spartans and Cardinals, per CBB Analytics.

Meanwhile, in those same two games where Garrison is replaced with Malachi Moreno, Kentucky is a +1 in just six minutes. Only two other lineups with at least three minutes together in those ranked matchups posted positive plus/minus numbers — both included Lowe, currently injured, and came in the loss to Louisville. The lineups that are working don’t seem to be used enough. Some of that is bad injury luck, but some of that is questionable management.

Granted, these are small sample sizes. We’re only five games into a very long season. But they’re so small because of how quickly guys are being subbed in and out of games. Even when a lineup is working, Pope has shown he will pull players to switch things up. Having Lowe back in the flow will help, but at some point, Pope needs to ride out the lineups that are working for extended periods.

If that means cutting out minutes for guys who aren’t getting it done, then so be it — the constant substitutions are doing this team no favors right now.