It was an interesting 2025 for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats, to say the least. The back half of his debut season featured some massive SEC wins and a return to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019. The front half of his second season in Lexington? Well, it started off about as horribly as imaginable with four straight name-brand losses — including a 35-point beatdown in Nashville.

Then they responded with back-to-back double-digit victories vs. Indiana and St. John’s to flip the momentum entering 2026 with the start of SEC play coming in January. And they’re in the middle of a 10-day break between games for a much-needed hard team reset to heal and recover.

It’s a good spot to be in, but there is plenty of work to do to get back in the national conversation as the serious Final Four contender the Cats were thought to be going into the season. In the spirit of the season, how about some New Year’s Resolutions for Pope and his Kentucky team to make sure they’re positioned for a deep postseason run?

Keep Jaland Lowe healthy

The Wildcats won basketball games without Jaland Lowe on the floor, but none against actual competition outside of the exhibition opener against Purdue. The difference in pace, playmaking and space with the Pittsburgh transfer out there is jarring, no better example than the 53-point second half for Kentucky against St. John’s in which Lowe finished with a team-high 13 points on 5-7 shooting with three rebounds, three assists and zero turnovers as a plus-20 in 15 minutes. That came after a 25-point first half against the Red Storm, the offense a disaster with Lowe limited to seven whopping seconds dealing with another shoulder slip-up — two entirely different teams, one obvious deciding variable.

Pope kept Lowe in bubble wrap over the holidays, sitting out against Bellarmine in a ‘calculated decision’ to get him to ‘full strength’ with 14 days of rest between St. John’s and Alabama. Once he returns, though, there is no plan to pick and choose the important matchups. The goal is for him to suit up through March and, hopefully, April.

“I expect him to play every game,” Pope said.

You can feel confident about Kentucky’s push for a Final Four with Lowe running the show, but that’s been easier said than done through December. Will his luck turn in 2026? That may decide the season.

Get Jasper Johnson ready at point guard

The hope is that Lowe can play the rest of the way without any serious setbacks, but again, that’s based on hope alone. Is there an unfortunate reality that includes additional absences or, the worst-case scenario, a season-ending injury? It’d be devastating for all parties involved, but you can’t live in a world of sunshine and rainbows with no backup plan or break-in-case-of-emergency option.

Denzel Aberdeen produces, but he can’t do it all by himself. Bellarmine was our best look at Jasper Johnson as a go-to playmaker, and the returns were positive, the Lexington native finishing with 11 points (4-8 FG, 3-5 3PT), seven assists, three rebounds, one block and just one turnover in 22 minutes — his longest run since November 21 and third-longest of the season.

As raw as he is with some physical limitations as a thin freshman, the former top-25 recruit is the most talented player on the roster with legitimate star upside. Lowe insurance doesn’t need to be found overseas or in the G League at the semester break; he’s already wearing Kentucky across his chest. These practices during the break are crucial not only for Johnson’s own personal development, but also in case this team needs him to play starter minutes down the stretch.

“Jasper is going to — he actually is growing into that right now,” Pope said of Johnson at point guard. “I mean, he was a 7-1 (assist-to-turnover) in his last game and his first possession of the game was a turnover. He was a 7-0 after that. … Listen, Jasper Johnson is a star in the making and it’s going to be really fun for all of us to watch him grow. He’s doing a terrific job.”

Take the training wheels off of Jayden Quaintance

Someone we know will be playing starter minutes down the stretch is the other piece who changed the game in that second half vs. St. John’s — and we had better enjoy him while we can, because Jayden Quaintance will be a lottery pick in June. Until then, the hope is that he helps Kentucky win a ton of basketball games with 18 more opportunities in the regular season and another nine in the postseason, potentially.

In the wise words of Will Stein, it’s time to feed the studs in Lexington. I understand keeping things light against Bellarmine in his second appearance with the program, but respectfully, that was a complete waste of time for everybody involved — ignore the ‘weird game’ and ‘weird matchup, weird vibe’ coachspeak for our generational defensive talent. The real stuff started against the Johnnies, then hit pause for the holidays before picking back up in Tuscaloosa.

The big-picture task at hand has been taken care of: JQ is healthy and active, suiting up for the Wildcats with superstar flashes. He’s a freak-of-nature athlete and physical man-child with instincts on par with Anthony Davis and Nerlens Noel and positional versatility similar to that of Bam Adebayo and Willie Cauley-Stein. Now with conference play here and some live reps under his belt, it’s time to take off the training wheels and give him a chance to prove why you paid him the big bucks out of the portal.

It sounds like Pope agrees with that.

“He’s close in a space where we’re just going to be able to roll him out there, and the only restriction is going to be fatigue,” he said. “… He just brings so much to our team. He’s gonna be really fun to watch grow, and that’s what he’s gonna do. He’s gonna get better every single day. He’s got just a massive ceiling. … You feel blessed to be able to coach guys like him — he’s gonna be really fun to coach.

“He’s gonna go through growing pains like every single player in the history of the universe has gone through, but man, he’s gonna be really good.”

Feed the hot hand with Kam Williams

Kentucky finally found something in the Tulane transfer. Well, that’s not fair to Kam Williams, because he’s been bringing plenty to the table — it just hasn’t been the reason Pope brought him in from the portal.

He was a sharpshooter on solid volume with some fun tools as a freshman in the AAC, then came to Lexington and couldn’t hit a shot, converting just 6-31 of his attempts from deep in his first ten games. To his credit, though, rather than letting the cold streak and waning confidence impact the other parts of his game, he was still defending hard, playmaking, rebounding and finishing around the rim. He’s still a 6-8, 205-pound athlete with a 36-inch vertical, and he used every bit of it to stay on the floor.

The patience paid off, Williams finally catching fire in his last three outings of the nonconference schedule, going 11-17 from beyond the arc for a hit rate of 64.7 percent — including an 8-10 finish from three for a career-high 26 total points against Bellarmine. In that three-game stretch, he’s averaging 15.3 points while shooting 61.9 percent overall, 64.7 percent from deep and 90.0 percent at the line.

Now it’s about combining it all and turning that first-round draft potential into a reality.

“He had such an incredible start to the season on the defensive end in all the metrics, and the challenge for him is going to be, can he get both those things going at the same time?” Pope said. “And he will. Kam’s one of those guys that you know exactly the player that he’s going to end up being, which is an incredibly special player. It’s just a matter of time for him to get there.”

He finished 2025 shooting the leather off the basketball. Now it’s time to feed the hot hand and keep that momentum rolling in 2026.