No shooting concerns for Kentucky as efficiency struggles to take off: 'Just gotta keep shooting.'

After a slow start, Mark Pope wound up giddy about Kentucky‘s shooting potential coming out of the summer and into the preseason, embracing the possibility of breaking last year’s school record set for most perimeter makes in a single season while continuing to push for volume at 30-plus attempts per contest. There may not be a Koby Brea-level shooter separating himself atop the college basketball world individually — although he did say Trent Noah would “bail us out” the way Brea did — but the team is loaded with capable weapons, deeper than his first group.

Through a Blue-White Game, two exhibition games and the season opener vs. Nicholls, though, Kentucky has not lived up to the hype. The Wildcats shot a combined 7-26 (26.9%) in the Blue-White, 9-29 (31.0%) vs. No. 1 Purdue, 7-30 (23.3%) vs. Georgetown and 7-27 (25.9%) against the Colonels to begin the real stuff. That’s a total of 30-112 (26.7%) in four outings — a small sample size overall, but trends emerging with volume right around where it needs to be and efficiency nowhere close.

Is there any concern about this becoming a long-term issue? Not at all.

It starts with the total shot numbers, nothing changing from their team goal of 30-plus — a non-negotiable, even as the focus remains on defense in general. Pope wants the defense to “carry” the team at times as a “real strength of ours,” but at the end of the day, the Wildcats are always going to prioritize letting it fly.

“Coach wants us to get up a lot of threes also,” Mo Dioubate said when asked about pushing for defense over offense in the early stages of the season. ‘He’s implementing defense, but offense, as well. He wants us to get up 30 threes a game. We’re still adjusting to that. … We’re trying to get as many shots as we can as a team.”

“We’re always hunting threes,” Denzel Aberdeen added.

They met their goal in the first half against the Colonels, launching 16 attempts from deep. The problem is they only hit two of them in those 20 minutes. They responded by getting efficiency where it needs to be in the final 20, hitting five of them — but only 11 total attempts.

Can they meet in the middle? That’s the plan.

“It’s so frustrating,” Collin Chandler said of Kentucky’s rough offensive start vs. Nicholls, scoring just 28 points on 32/13/46 splits. “They did a great job. We felt a little bit of that at the beginning of the game. It just feels like we’re just out of sorts a little bit. We know we’re pounding the rock. We’re just gonna continue to shoot it. Even if shots aren’t falling, we’re shooting and we’re wedging. We’re going to get offensive rebounds, get more possessions.”

“I just think our shot selection was a little off,” Aberdeen continued. “But once we got together and we talked to each other at halftime and stuff like that, we picked it up in the second half. … Our defense was pretty good in the first half, but the shots just didn’t fall. Some of them were bad shots, but Coach got on us on that, and then we just took better shots.”

As for the efficiency, it’ll get there, just as it did in the second half. Shot selection and ball movement to create better looks will improve and confidence will grow, nerves settling more and more with each game.

Ability is not the question — they know they’ve got capable shot-makers.

“We got a lot of great shooters,” Aberdeen added. “… It’s all about just confidence. I know everybody was jittery. It’s the first game in front of the crowd and stuff like that, but we just gotta keep shooting. It’s gonna fall eventually, and we just keep playing defense the way we are.”

What’s the message to fans currently concerned about the team’s shooting after so much hype throughout the offseason and going into live game action?

It’s fine to expect and demand more — that’s what you sign up for at Kentucky. But they’re also wearing that name across their chest for a reason. Confidence is high the Wildcats have all of the pieces they need to be an elite shooting team.

The questions are fine today, knowing they’ll be answered tomorrow.

“I’m not really concerned about it, but I just feel like guys are still adjusting a little bit,” Dioubate said. “It’s Kentucky basketball, it comes with a lot of expectations. I think that as long as we just keep getting to our spots, we keep playing fast, making the right reads, over time, the shooting’s gonna come along. 

“We have the shooters. We have the shooters, we have the personnel. I think it’s gonna work out pretty well.”