The Kentucky Wildcats had a solid season in Mark Pope’s inaugural season. Expectations weren’t incredibly high as most had tempered them, but it’s still Kentucky, right?
The same can’t be said about this season, as Pope is entering year 2. Fans believe this is a Final Four caliber team, and, according to many reports, it should be based on the payroll.
Pope had an offensive juggernaut in his first season, but the Cats really struggled to defend at times. If his team struggled to score or faced a bigger
offensive threat (see Alabama), then Kentucky had a difficult time winning some of those slugfests or shootouts.
The up-and-down nature of last year’s team really created a sort of Jekyll & Hyde vibe. Dr. Jekyll beat Duke, Gonzaga, Florida, Missouri, and Tennessee, while Mr. Hyde dropped gimmes to Ohio State, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, and Texas.
Every time it felt like the team was ready to go on a run, they came crashing back down to earth. From January to March, it felt like the Cats won, then lost, won, then lost, and over and over again. While some of that can be attributed to injuries, it really dampened the postseason outlook because you have to win six games in a row to bring home No. 9.
Fast-forward to this season. Pope decided to go transfer heavy again, along with his returners, but this time he focused on defensive/grittiness traits. He brought in a top-defensive center in Jayden Quaintance. He snatched up Nate Oats’ stopper in Mo Dioubate. He took National Champion Florida’s soon-to-be starter in Denzel Aberdeen. And he brought in Jaland Lowe and Kam Williams, who could do a little on both ends.
In one offseason, Pope went from an offensive juggernaut to a defensive specialist with some athleticism and shooting mixed in. The hope, or should I say expectation, has been that a better defensive team would help cure some of the downtimes Kentucky faced last season because defense travels, even when the shots aren’t falling.
In exhibition game number 1, this team looked like Dr. Jekyll. Their athleticism overwhelmed the No. 1-ranked Purdue Boilermakers as they dominated from start to finish. What’s even more impressive is they did so without their starting point guard, Lowe, and starting center, Quaintance.
But then we made our way into exhibition game number 2, and the same storylines seem to follow this team that haunted last year’s squad. Lowe and Quaintance remained out of action, but Aberdeen, surprisingly, joined them. All of a sudden, the Cats were down three starters.
However, Kentucky was facing a less-than-stellar Georgetown Hoyas team, so surely, the injuries wouldn’t play too much of a part, right?
Wrong.
Mr. Hyde reared his ugly head again. Maybe the cure wasn’t really a cure after all. Kentucky was dominated from start to finish this time. They couldn’t defend or score. A lot of the guys playing big minutes look more like solid reserves than role players.
The injuries are piling up, and the season hasn’t even really started, but what’s even more concerning is that we’re potentially hopping back on the Pope roller coaster.
I know that we have to take exhibition games with a grain of salt, but there was a real trend last season of this up-and-down, win-lose-win-lose style, and it might be back. I’m still optimistic about the season and this team’s ultimate season, but it’s something to watch going forward.
Hopefully, it’s nothing more than a preseason blip!
