{"id":482693,"date":"2025-12-19T12:02:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T12:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/482693\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T12:02:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T12:02:14","slug":"as-kentucky-finds-offensive-identity-mark-pope-embraces-smash-mouth-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/482693\/","title":{"rendered":"As Kentucky finds offensive identity, Mark Pope embraces ‘smash mouth basketball’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maybe it was Mo Dioubate<\/a>\u2018s return for the Wildcats, maybe it was Kentucky<\/a>\u2018s desperation as it fought for its first name-brand victory of the season, maybe it was because they had no other choice with the offense nothing short of a disaster right now. All of the above? A little bit of everything? Whatever it was, that second-half fight in the team\u2019s 12-point win vs. Indiana was something special, winning with grit and toughness after their want-to had been questioned.<\/p>\n

They shot just 38 percent from the field, 20 percent from three and 66 percent at the line, but controlled the game late while holding the Hoosiers to just 34 percent overall and 17 percent from deep. Defensive execution and effort were excellent as the Wildcats made winning play after winning play, diving for loose balls and going 1-on-5 for offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities.<\/p>\n

Now, Mark Pope<\/a> doesn\u2019t want his team to live in this territory forever \u2014 he still believes Kentucky will end up being a \u2018really dangerous\u2019<\/a> shooting team, despite sitting at No. 243 nationally in 3-point percentage. Until they get things figured out, though, the second-year coach likes proving this group can win in other ways, if necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I think we can win games when we have that type of commitment to our team and that type of grit,\u201d\u00a0Pope said.\u00a0<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s not the way we want to have to win every game, but certainly I think that that\u2019s something we should be able to fall back on. There\u2019s a big-time safety net for us in terms of just playing every possession with all the passion we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expects the Wildcats to shoot better than the 3-15 mark they finished with against the Hoosiers when they travel down to Atlanta to take on Rick Pitino and St. John\u2019s, but knowing how the Red Storm play, it might be another toughest-man-wins kind of day at State Farm Arena.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s got a name for that kind of on-court product, sacrificing beauty for some necessary grime \u2014 winning in the mud, if you will.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s smash mouth basketball,\u201d Pope said Thursday.<\/a> \u201cI think it\u2019s gonna be really fun and ugly and gruesome and brutal and violent. It\u2019s awesome. It\u2019s great. It won\u2019t be (that style) forever; it\u2019s just for now. Just for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of it is Kentucky\u2019s obvious (and hopefully temporary) offensive struggles. Part of it is St. John\u2019s, coached by Rick Pitino, playing in the Big East. <\/p>\n

You may remember what Ed Cooley said about that following Georgetown\u2019s exhibition win over the Wildcats back in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought our ball pressure really bothered them, and I thought the physicality of the game played into what I call Big East basketball,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

Expect more of the same against the Johnnies \u2014 and Pope says he\u2019ll be ready for that, while also preparing for the unknown that could be either team catching fire at the right time (or wrong, if it happens to be Pitino\u2019s group). <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there will be some of that, for sure,\u201d he said of St. John\u2019s. \u201cJust looking at the personnel on the court, I think it\u2019ll be \u2014 I think we probably have two teams that have really, really high ceilings that haven\u2019t totally found them yet. I think you have two teams that can, at any given moment, be incredibly explosive. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think at the heart of it, there\u2019s gonna be a lot of physicality in the game. It should be really fun. It\u2019s gonna be a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope hopes his Wildcats wake up in Atlanta feeling red-hot and knock down a million 3-pointers, winning in the clouds rather than the mud. Again, he\u2019s confident they\u2019ll get there at some point.<\/p>\n

Whatever it takes to win this game, though, Kentucky needs to be ready for the moment. After the slow start to the season, this group needs a feel-good victory going into the holidays and the SEC schedule.<\/p>\n

Throw it all against the wall and leave the city with more points than the Johnnies \u2014 it doesn\u2019t matter how it looks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for all of our guys, and it should be fun. It should be fun. It should be violent and vicious and fun,\u201d Pope said. \u201cWe get to do a lot of work in the trenches. There\u2019s also going to be a tremendous pace to this game, there will be a whole lot of pace. I think both teams are going to make shots in this game, too, so it\u2019s going to be the whole thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the heart of it, this confrontational spirit of the game, will be really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maybe it was Mo Dioubate\u2018s return for the Wildcats, maybe it was Kentucky\u2018s desperation as it fought for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,4000,7910],"class_list":{"0":"post-482693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-kentucky-basketball","10":"tag-mark-pope-91-newport-senior"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115746136558081132","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}