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What’s the secret to successful defense for Kentucky basketball?
Simple. It’s all about the championship chest according to what Kentucky coach Mark Pope said on his weekly radio show Monday night with host Tom Leach.
But what is a championship chest?
“Catching bodies with your chest is really important,” Pope said. “We have two components of it. One is a positive step. So you’ll hear me say ‘positive step’ all the time. That’s when you’re in a defensive stance. When you’re in a defensive stance, great defenders — If I’m in a stance and the man I’m guarding takes a dribble to his right hand.
“Then my first move, it actually instinctively — almost every human being’s first move is to lean their body in the direction where they’re trying to slide, and their first movement is to take their right leg and pick it up and bring it forward when that doesn’t actually cover any ground.
“So we teach all of our guys through sheer repetition every single day, in our banner behavior segment of practice, that the first instinctive movement as this player is attacking to his right.”
Got that? There’s more.
“My first one has got to be left foot off the ground, not left foot pushing out and extending. Because then with my first movement, even if it’s a little bit slower, I’m actually covering ground with my body, with my chest and so it’s a positive step. I don’t know if you can visit their mind, but it’s not instinctive,” Pope said.
“If you go do this at home, you’re going to be like, ‘Wow, that’s really weird. I always do. I actually end up with my first foot off the ground not covering any ground to actually get in front of the defender.’ So it’s something we really, really train. And then after that positive step, it’s all about not receiving an offensive player with your hands, but receiving an offensive player with your chest.”
It’s no surprise that Otega Oweh and Lamont Butler are what Pope calls “two of the best in America at championship chest” which makes sense since they are two of the best at about everything for Kentucky. But guess who is next best?
“I’ll tell you who else is really good at it is Trent Noah,” Pope said. “He is terrific with his championship chest.
“We have some guys that are getting better every day, but it’s a really important component of guarding without fouling, which, through the first 11 games of the season, we’ve been one of the best teams in the country at guarding without fouling. A lot of credit to our staff, to Alvin Brooks and Mark Fox and the rest of the staff for really digging into these concepts that allow you to guard physically without fouling.”
5 Responses
Its amazing what happens when you actually put a great staff together as Pope has done. Its going to be very hard to keep this group of assistants together. They all would be good head coaches. Look at chin Coleman and Kenny Payne and Orlando Antigua. You could take all the 3 of them assistants and put them into 1 and they still wouldn’t be better than the group that Pope assembled. They all act burnt out on basketball and Cal would just keep bringing them back lol. I have a feeling Cal only coaches for another couple years then retires.
Impressive!
ESPN says that Kentucky has the most difficult remaining schedule in the country and they are right. Whether we are 11-1 or 10-2, we have done well this far. We still have not found the confidence and the chemistry we need to make a Final 4, but maybe that will come along the way. Throwing 8 seniors and super seniors together from the portal with a sophomore and 3 freshmen…who would have thought they would be the 4th rank team in the country at this date. The only suspect teams in the SEC are Vandy, LSU, and South Carolina, but they are dangerous on their own floor. The other 15 games will be rock fights regardless of where they are played. We have the DNA to be a great 3 point shooting team, but in the heat of the battle it’s easier to feel good about making a layup. This team will not hit Pope’s target of shooting 35 threes and will make 30% of them. We will make 50+% of our 2s and average 40 a game with 25 three pointers shot. We will average between 75 and 80 points a game and will play zone half of the time. What kind of record will that produce…who knows. We should win more than we lose. I am guessing we finish 22-8 to 24-6 by tourney time. I think we will be at least in the semi- final of the SEC and will make a regional final in the Dance. Not bad for year 1. It will only get better. Go CATS!!!
The TWO games vs # 1 TN
and TWO games vs #7 ALA
add to the tough UK schedule, along with many SEC teams, including #2 AUB & so many orhers in the Top 10 & Top 25. Add in Duke & the Zags as well as Clemson (& maybe UL) and UK has a schedule that would stack up against the most difficult any college team has ever faced.
UK was a cohesive we’ll-tuned TEAM in the first 6 games or so, and then some players decided to take mini-vacations into their selfish game style, which disrupts ALL the players on the floor with them.
This multiple sharp passes leading to very good shots have been replaced by quick triggers far too often and when that happens it’s no longer the same original TEAM 1st.
There is a major need for the 3 FR to get up to speed to be fully dependable when called upon to replace any player who slips into their selfish mode. Hit or miss the shot, it still disrupts the TEAM if ANY player goes solo.
UK beat the Zags out on the Left Coast WITHOUT Butler which is an amazing accomplishment. It shows what UK can do when ALL the players in the floor follow Pope BB 100% instead of going solo.
UK is a FF team…
IF… IF… EVERY player plays Pope Ball 100% of the time
UK will struggle to get to the S-16…
IF… IF.., some of the players continue to resort back to their old selfish style part of the time they are on the floor.
Pope rapidly assembled and developed a FF contender TEAM but plans MUST remain faithful to get the course corrected & them stay on it.
Now is the time when we will find out if these guys are playing for Kentucky or their future NBA draft prospects.