Kentucky players celebrate a 3-pointer against Western Kentucky. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky’s offense continues to garner the national headlines because of what coach Mark Pope’s team has done this season. However, the Kentucky defense continues to go unappreciated considering what it has already done this season.
The defense sparked an 87-68 win over Western Kentucky Tuesday night when the Hilltoppers were held to 21 of 66 shooting from the field and just 4-for-26 — 15.4 percent — from 3-point range.
Western Kentucky coach Hank Plona appreciated what Kentucky does on both ends of the court.
“I mean basketball is a game that is connected between offense and defense. I thought there were a couple plays we did not complete the turn, maybe a shot didn’t go our way or we missed a shot at the rim, or maybe looked back for a foul call and all of a sudden you don’t get back on defense and they are able to run out and get some momentum,” Plona said.
“They are a very difficult team to guard. They’ve got four guys on the floor that can shoot at all times. At least one guy (Koby Brea) that’s among the best 3-point shooters in college basketball. So they stretch you out a little bit and we were trying to pressure while protecting the rim. They were slipping and cutting to the basket quite a bit. Their offense is very difficult and poses a lot of challenges to be perfectly honest with you guys.
“I thought during that stretch, that part of the game got a little up and down in our direction, that is when we had some good runs. If we didn’t score right away, I thought we were able to execute the half court. Good things happen but that in between was a struggle for us we didn’t get a breakpoint. Our offense got a little stagnant or tired, we didn’t get much movement and we took a rush shot.
“These guys really make you pay for that, so they were able to get some runouts from that and kind of extend that lead back up.”
Western also held UK to 8-for-29 shooting from 3-point range and Plona said guarding the 3-point line was his team’s focus.
“Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson and Koby Brea are elite shooters, I mean elite, elite shooters. They have five of the eight that are aggressive, the rest of the team had three. We weretrying to hold them to one each, we really wanted to set the goal at zero, but we thought if it was two combined we would be in good shape,” the Western coach said.
“But 8-of-29 is accomplishing our goal. They execute very well, they cut to the basket at full speed. When you stretch out and guard the line, I mean they are not just running their patterns, they are running their patterns changing speed, changing direction to a very high level. Obviously, they got to the free throw line 29 times. It’s a physical game at the rim.”
4 Responses
The Cats still can’t shoot free throws. They would have won easier if they could hit free throws.
Well they did shoot almost 70 percent at the line so it was no God-awful
Now who is being ultra-negative? Oh, it’s the VIRTUE-SIGNALER!! OK, so it’s ok for YOU to be negative and call out the team, but not the rest of us–ok, I gotcha……..man, can u imagine how the VIRTUE-SIGNALER would have responded had me or Barry or LB or somebody called out the team for atrocious free-throw shooting had his favorite coach still been coaching here? "Oh u all suck, u all call yourselves true Blue fans and true fans don’t whine and cry and complain, nobody wants to come coach here cuz it’s full of spoiled, ungrateful fans like you"……boy, it must really be killing you, VIRTUE-SIGNALER, to see Pope doing so well so far with this team, and this team doing so well, that all you can do after a 19-pt win is criticize the free-throw shooting. Poor free throw shooting was one of the HALLMARKS of your fav coach’s teams going all the way back to Memphis, so pot calling the kettle black!!! Hypocrite hater of Pope, and not a real KY fan—he would rather VIRTUE-SIGNAL to all of us. That’s his specialty. Tell us all what we can and cannot say Abt the team, and how to say it……..
The team wasn’t ready for the rock fight that Western gave them. That threw off their entire game. They will be ok. This was a good game for them to play. Their next big test will be the true road game at Clemson. We have a better team, but a hostile home crowd will be another new experience. December is final exams prior to SEC play. Gonzaga will be tough in Seattle despite their poor showing in the Bahamas. Louisville is showing marked improvement from last year. That will be a dangerous game, but a great game to get us ready for SEC play.