Competitive Cats Put On Show Every Day, Not Just For Pro Day

By LARRY VAUGHT

If you were able to get SEC Network+ to properly stream you got a chance to watch coach Mark Pope’s team practice Tuesday as NBA scouts sat courtside to watch and evaluate the Cats.

After UK’s Pro Day ended — and while players were still putting up shots — Pope joined Dick Gabriel and Jack Givens for a post-Pro Day interview.

Pope told them his team is so competitive that when he tried to stop a practice last week when the team was struggling the players wanted no part of that.

“I tried to call it, the guys went, ‘No, no, no, no, we got it. We’ve got to finish this. We got to.’ I love it. I love it. I love it. It’s just, we have so many guys bringing that juice,” Pope said.

Earlier assistant coach Mikhail McLean had the same message about this team’s intensity during his time with Givens and Gabriel.

“We almost have to dial these guys down. Everything we do, they want it to be a competition. Sometimes we’re like guys, ‘We need to teach a little bit.’ They just want to play, they want to foul the living snot out of each other,” McLean laughed and said.

“We always say the practices are going to be so much harder than the actual games. Yesterday was supposed to be a lighter day to keep these guys fresh, and these guys are literally trying to fight one another.

“Guys are diving on the floor, climbing on each other’s backs for rebounds, blocking shots, talking trash, we’re like, ‘Guys, relax.’ They cannot wait to play against someone else, man. We never have to dial these guys up.”

They certainly did not have to be dialed up for the NBA scouts or online fans. The White Team tonight had Jaland Lowe, Denzel Abderdeen, Malachi Moreno, Mo Dioubate, Trent Noah, and Braydon Hawthorne. The Blue Team had Brandon Garrison, Collin Chandler, Reece Potter, Jasper Johnson, Andrija Jelavic, and Kam Williams. (Otega Oweh and Jayden Quaintance did not participate in 5-on-5 play due to injuries.)

Those teams have gone against each other the last five practices according to Pope. The White team had won four straight days before the Blue team got the win Tuesday.

“We got a lot of competitive guys. We have so many little pieces that we can tweak. It’s just a matter of getting to them, the little things we can try,” Pope said. “This can be an incredibly fun team to coach.

“What’s been fun for me is, it’s been fun and really challenging. Usually, I can stack a team and know the outcome. And I’ve tried for the last five days, I’ve tried to stack a team and get the predicted outcome in practice, and I can’t. I’ve actually talked to the guys about that, like, we tried to trick it up and stack it, and who’s playing?

“Well, let’s put them all together, and then, for sure, the other team raised up. This is a team of great depth and great competitive spirit. I can’t wait. Like, it is such a joy to coach this group.”

The coach called Florida transfer Denzel Aberdeen, Alabama transfer Mo Dioubate, and returning sophomore Collin Chandler the leaders in the competitive spirit.

Pope also shared some analytics on Aberdeen.

“He’s at 1.18 points per possession right now, which is a big jump from where he was at Florida. He’s shooting 47 percent from 3 in our first two and a half weeks of practice. He’s actually improving his two-point percentage,” Pope said.

Wait. Pope had more numbers.

“His assist-to-turnover ratio is taking a massive jump this summer. He was in the 25, 26, 27 percent, now he’s down in the low teens, you know, to 11, 12, 13 percent so he is really growing as a player, but he’s a dangerous, dangerous, dangerous player. He’s really skilled,” Pope said.