Brandon Garrison (Vicky Graff Photo)
By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky coach Mark Pope raved about his talented trio of freshmen at Kentucky’s Media Day on Monday. He also praised another strong group of transfers who could shape how this season turns out.
But Pope did not forget his four returning players — Trent Noah, Collin Chandler, Brandon Garrison, and Otega Oweh, last year’s leading scorer. That’s four more returning players than the UK had last season when Pope took over after John Calipari left for Arkansas.
Pope likes the way all four have improved.
“Trent Noah is a 1.76 points per possession in live play right now. I’ve never seen that number ever in the history of college basketball,” Pope said at Media Day. “I mean, it’s only two weeks and — is this the first day of week three? Trent has made a massive jump.
“Collin Chandler is leading the team in the defensive impact metric. Both those guys have made Herculean, massive jumps.”
As strong as that sounds, Pope was even more lavish in his praise of junior center Brandon Garrison.
“Brandon Garrison is winning conditioning runs at the end of practice. You want to talk about wanting to feel like I don’t even know what planet I’m living on right now. I’m so proud of this kid,” Pope said.
“Watching those guys grow, and Otega, of course, has been dealing with his (injured) toe, but the way he’s grown as a leader.”
Pope started on the UK’s 1996 national championship team and loves the challenge of trying to win another title with this team after reaching the Sweet Sixteen in his first season as UK’s coach.
“Some people might say last year, a veteran team, so there’s a lot of pressure to win,” Pope said. “This year, you have a deep team, so there’s a lot of pressure to win. Next year it will be something else. What you don’t understand, if you are not here at Kentucky, is that this is all the pressure, always.
“If we had three players on this roster, the expectation would be that we would still go on a national championship. That never changes here. It’s one of the things that sets Kentucky apart from everyone else.”
One Response
Pope understands the assignment. Do the players understand and subscribe to it? What might improve one's NBA draft stock may not be conducive to helping the team win a national title. Pope has 10 kids that could be starters on almost any other team. Only 5 can start any given game. Will Pope rotate the starting 5? That would go against developing chemistry and understanding one's role in the beginning, but could prove beneficial later on if injuries should occur…especially multiple injuries. It would cement the concept of team versus the concept of me. It will be an interesting season for sure.
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