Mark Pope did not come to Kentucky Basketball to win 63–58 rock fights. He talked about threes, tempo, analytics, and an offense that would feel like a track meet.
Eleven games in, though, the version of
Kentucky that actually looks the most dangerous is something else entirely: a group that turns games into a fistfight in the mud.
And the wildest part? Kentucky’s best lineup in that kind of game might also be its worst offensive lineup on paper:
Jaland Lowe, Otega Oweh, Kam Williams, Mouhamed Dioubate, and, when he’s fully back, Jayden Quaintance.
If you love spacing and shot-making, that five will make you cringe. If you love toughness, switches, deflections, and bodies flying on the floor, that five looks like a fever dream.
The numbers say this group can’t really shoot
Start with the obvious problem: jumpers.
Lowe is still playing his way back into rhythm. Through his first five games, he’s shooting 27.3% from the field and 16.7% from 3, even as he changes the entire feel of the offense just by being able to get into the paint. Oweh is the only real proven shooter in this five; he’s at 48.6% from the floor and 37.5% from deep this season, right in line with his career mark in the mid-30s from three.
Williams gives you energy and flashes, but the shot hasn’t landed yet — 40.8% overall, just 21.2% from beyond the arc.
Then you get to the bigs. Dioubate is a monster around the rim, hitting 61.4% from the field and averaging 12 points and nearly seven boards in just over 20 minutes a night. But from 3? He’s sitting at 9.1%.
Quaintance’s last healthy sample wasn’t much better from deep: 52.5% from the floor overall, but only 18.8% from 3 and 47.9% at the line in his pre-ACL season. Almost all of his scoring came right at the rim.
Put all of that together and, on paper, you’re talking about a group that would barely crack the low 20s in 3-point percentage combined. That’s not just “below average.” That’s “the paint is a traffic jam and every opponent is packing five guys inside the elbows” territory.
On a whiteboard, that lineup is everything modern basketball tells you not to do. Nate Oats is probably in a corner crying just thinking of what that would look like.
The Lowe–Oweh–Williams–Dioubate–Quaintance group is terrifying… on both ends of the court
But basketball games aren’t played on a whiteboard. They’re played in the mess.
Look at the impact metrics. On EvanMiya, Dioubate grades out with a BPR over 6.4, with a huge defensive bump; his DBPR sits north of 3.1.
Oweh is right there with him, with a 5.94 BPR and a 3.39 DBPR — that’s the profile of a legit two-way wing. Lowe, even in limited possessions, carries a BPR above 5.1, with positive value on both ends.
Williams checks in near 5.0 as well, driven largely by his defensive work.
Those numbers back up what you feel watching them: this is a lineup that makes you earn every inch. Lowe hounds the ball. Oweh and Williams blow up passing lanes, chase over the top, and don’t shy away from contact. Dioubate plays like every rebound personally insulted him.
Quaintance, when he’s ready, adds a high-level rim protector who changes shots just by being near the action. Rumors are that he loves swatting them into the walls at the Joe Craft Center.
You don’t put that five on the floor to win a shooting contest. You put them out there to drag the game into a place the other team wants no part of—a slogfest where you feel you can’t do anything.
Offense by force, not by feel
The way this lineup scores is simple, and it has very little to do with pretty half-court execution.
Lowe’s job is to get downhill and touch the paint. Once he does, everything becomes a scramble. Oweh and Williams crash, slash, and live at the rim. Dioubate basically treats every missed shot like a pass to himself. Quaintance, even without a jumper, is a lob threat and a putback machine.
You’re not relying on jumpers. You’re relying on extra possessions from offensive rebounds, free throws created by physical drives, and turnovers turned into layups.
It’s the same formula that saved Kentucky against Indiana. Shots weren’t falling, so they simply decided to win every 50–50 ball, wedge on the glass, and squeeze Indiana into 34% shooting with 18 turnovers.
Plug Quaintance into that kind of environment with this four-man core, and you can see the outline of a lineup that wins ugly but, more importantly, wins a lot.
The identity Kentucky basketball might have to accept
Pope still believes the shooting will eventually match the NOAH numbers in practice. Maybe by February, this looks like a completely different offense, and this conversation feels silly.
But right now, the version of Kentucky that feels most real is the one that just beat Indiana: gross, beautiful basketball, as Pope called it. Slow, physical, combative, full of floor burns instead of fireworks.
In that world, Lowe–Oweh–Williams–Dioubate–Quaintance is kind of perfect. It might be the worst shooting lineup on the roster. It also might be the one group that can walk into a March rock fight, look across at a veteran team, and say, “Fine. Let’s see who bleeds first.”
It’s not what anyone expected when this season tipped off. But it might be exactly what this team needs to be. And if that’s the identity, then Kentucky’s best lineup being its ugliest offensive lineup isn’t a problem.
It’s the point.
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Drew Holbrook has been covering the Cats for over 10 years. In his free time he enjoys downtime with his family and Premier League soccer. You can find him on X here. Micah 7:7. #UptheAlbion
