Unsurprisingly, Kentucky thrived on 3s and layups against Purdue

3s and layups. 3s and layups. And more 3s and layups. It’s the modern basketball mantra you’re probably sick of hearing by now. But just in case the offseason left your palette freshly ready for a new dose of it, Kentucky’s offense against Purdue featured a healthy supply of 3s and layups. Or dunks. Or shots at the rim. We don’t discriminate against the bunnies.

The Wildcats shot the ball 61 times on Friday against the Boilermakers, and all but seven of those shots came from somewhere on the floor outside the paint but inside the 3-point arc. That means 88.5 percent of Kentucky’s shots were of the analytically favorable variety.

The math checks out pretty closely with Pope’s offense last year. Throughout the course of his first season, his team only shot 7.3 percent of its shots from 2-point range outside the paint. So, he probably considers hoisting up 11.5 percent of their shots from midrange against Purdue to be an abomination. But hey, it was an exhibition game. There is still time to improve.

If we want to get really picky, one of those long 2-point shots was accidental, as Jasper Johnson barely had a toe on the line for what would have been a 3. If you were to count that as a 3-point attempt, that would drop the Cats’ percentage outside-the-paint 2s down to just 9.9 percent.

Wait, 9.9 percent? All you numerology buffs know what to do with that.

In all seriousness, this year’s Kentucky team is going to be an unfair amount of fun. Last season was a blast, but the combination of a modern offense with dudes who can flat-out shut their man down on defense is a recipe for the type of excitement that requires truckloads of confetti.