{"id":510332,"date":"2026-01-01T19:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T19:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/510332\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T19:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T19:24:12","slug":"2026-new-years-resolutions-for-mark-pope-and-kentucky-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/510332\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 New Year’s Resolutions for Mark Pope and Kentucky Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was an interesting 2025 for Mark Pope<\/a> and the Kentucky <\/a>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 \u2014 including a 35-point beatdown in Nashville.<\/p>\n

Then they responded with back-to-back double-digit victories vs. Indiana and St. John\u2019s to flip the momentum entering 2026 with the start of SEC play coming in January. And they\u2019re in the middle of a 10-day break between games for a much-needed hard team reset to heal and recover.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019s Resolutions for Pope and his Kentucky team to make sure they\u2019re positioned for a deep postseason run?<\/p>\n

Keep Jaland Lowe healthy<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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 \u2014 two entirely different teams, one obvious deciding variable.<\/p>\n

Pope kept Lowe in bubble wrap over the holidays, sitting out against Bellarmine in a \u2018calculated decision\u2019<\/a> to get him to \u2018full strength\u2019 with 14 days of rest between St. John\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect him to play every game,\u201d Pope said.<\/a><\/p>\n

You can feel confident about Kentucky\u2019s push for a Final Four with Lowe running the show, but that\u2019s been easier said than done through December. Will his luck turn in 2026? That may decide the season.<\/p>\n

Get Jasper Johnson ready at point guard<\/p>\n

The hope is that Lowe can play the rest of the way without any serious setbacks, but again, that\u2019s based on hope alone. Is there an unfortunate reality that includes additional absences or, the worst-case scenario, a season-ending injury? It\u2019d be devastating for all parties involved, but you can\u2019t live in a world of sunshine and rainbows with no backup plan or break-in-case-of-emergency option.<\/p>\n

Denzel Aberdeen produces, but he can\u2019t 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 \u2014 his longest run since November 21 and third-longest of the season.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t need to be found overseas or in the G League at the semester break; he\u2019s already wearing Kentucky across his chest. These practices during the break are crucial not only for Johnson\u2019s own personal development, but also in case this team needs him to play starter minutes down the stretch. <\/p>\n

\u201cJasper is going to \u2014 he actually is growing into that right now,\u201d Pope said of Johnson at point guard. \u201cI mean, he was a 7-1 (assist-to-turnover) in his last game\u00a0and his first possession of the game was a turnover. He was a 7-0 after that. \u2026 Listen, Jasper Johnson is a star in the making and it\u2019s going to be really\u00a0fun for all of us to watch him grow. He\u2019s doing a terrific job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take the training wheels off of Jayden Quaintance<\/p>\n

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\u2019s \u2014 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. <\/p>\n

In the wise words of Will Stein, it\u2019s 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 \u2014 ignore the \u2018weird game\u2019 and \u2018weird matchup, weird vibe\u2019 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. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

It sounds like Pope agrees with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s close in a space where we\u2019re just going to be able to roll him out there, and the only restriction is going to be fatigue,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 He just brings so much to our team. He\u2019s gonna be really fun to watch grow, and that\u2019s what he\u2019s gonna do. He\u2019s gonna get better every single day. He\u2019s got just a massive ceiling. \u2026 You feel blessed to be able to coach guys like him \u2014 he\u2019s gonna be really fun to coach. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s gonna go through growing pains like every single player in the history of the universe has gone through, but man, he\u2019s gonna be really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feed the hot hand with Kam Williams<\/p>\n

Kentucky finally found something in the Tulane transfer. Well, that\u2019s not fair to Kam Williams, because he\u2019s been bringing plenty to the table \u2014 it just hasn\u2019t been the reason Pope brought him in from the portal.<\/p>\n

He was a sharpshooter on solid volume with some fun tools as a freshman in the AAC, then came to Lexington and couldn\u2019t 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\u2019s still a 6-8, 205-pound athlete with a 36-inch vertical, and he used every bit of it to stay on the floor.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 including an 8-10 finish from three for a career-high 26 total points against Bellarmine. In that three-game stretch, he\u2019s averaging 15.3 points while shooting 61.9 percent overall, 64.7 percent from deep and 90.0 percent at the line.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s about combining it all and turning that first-round draft potential into a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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?\u201d Pope said. \u201cAnd he will. Kam\u2019s one of those guys that you know exactly the player that he\u2019s going to end up being, which is an incredibly special player.\u00a0It\u2019s just a matter of time for him to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He finished 2025 shooting the leather off the basketball. Now it\u2019s time to feed the hot hand and keep that momentum rolling in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was an interesting 2025 for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats, to say the least. The back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,4000],"class_list":{"0":"post-510332","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"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115821482110293790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510332","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=510332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}