Kam Williams had 13 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals in Friday's win. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Change is good and it was great for Kentucky on Friday night.
The 12th-ranked Wildcats bounced back from a disappointing 83-66 loss to Michigan State in the Champions Classic earlier this week and rolled to an 88-46 win over Loyola, an outing that served as a “step forward” for Mark Pope’s squad.
In an effort to spark his team, Pope tweaked his starting five and inserted transfer Kam Williams and freshman Malachi Moreno into the lineup. The switch was partly because of the absence of starting point guard Jaland Lowe (shoulder) and Mo Dioubate (ankle) and the need to change things up after losses to No. 9 Louisville and 17th-ranked Michigan State during the past two weeks.
Moreno finished with 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Williams tied teammate Collin Chandler with a team-high 13 points and connected on a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the first half that gave the hosts a commanding 50-20 lead at the break.
The team’s defensive showing was opposite of what the Wildcats displayed earlier this week at Madison Square Garden when the Wildcats surrendered a season-high 11 3-pointers and 44 first-half points to the Spartans.
“I thought we were good in the gaps today,” Pope said. “I thought our shell principles were pretty good. We have to get better and this (was an) important night for us.”
Losses to Michigan State and Louisville have weighed heavily on Pope and the Wildcats, in addition to outside noise centering around the team’s inability to find the right chemistry.
“We need to play better, we’ve got to get better, and we will stop at nothing to get better,” Pope said. “We won’t sleep, we won’t eat, we won’t do anything until we get better and we’re going to get better. That’s going to take every ounce of our soul to do it, and there’s nothing that will stop us from getting better and achieving what we’re going to achieve this year.”
Amid the early season struggles to open the season, Pope is in a “happy space” and is ready to dig deeper to get his team better.
“(I have) the determination to get down in the mud and grow and do it sleeplessly and relentlessly and get better every single day and push every single button and try every single new thing,” he said. “That’s actually how you build something great and work on it.
“We’re not leaving it like we’re in it. We’re going to push it, we’re going to make progress. I’m actually better than, okay, this is my this is my heaven, right here. It’s hard, but we have something really good here, and we’re gonna make sure we get there.”
Kentucky senior Otega Oweh, who scored six of the first eight points to help set the tone for the blowout win, finished with 11 points and took the 3-2 start to open the season personal and it showed against the Greyhounds.
“It wasn’t the way we wanted things to go,” Oweh said. “Every time you get to play, it’s an opportunity to change the script — flip the switch.”
While Oweh took charge getting the team back into rhythm, his teammates followed to ease the tension from the two losses
“Everyone’s been locked in,” Oweh said. “… Everyone really took it upon themselves to make sure that we do our part.”
Chandler added the team’s response after the poor showing in New York City was “good as a team.”
“Our response was less, getting down on each other and more, ‘let’s just get better’ (and) that’s what we’ve been focusing on every day this time.”
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GAMETRACKER: Tennessee Tech at Kentucky, 7 p.m., Wednesday. TV/Radio: SECN, UK Radio Network. Coverage: www.kentuckytoday.com.
9 Responses
We're Back!
The N. Carolina game will tell how much progress that's has been made.
We looked better for 20 minutes, then reverted back to our bad habits. The first half on offense had everybody moving, screening, popping out, cutting in and the ball kept moving finding open 3s, backdoors to the basket, and lobs at the rim. That kind of play tires you out though and that showed in our 3 point defense in the first 8 minutes, but that got better. We outscored Loyola by 30. The keyword in that sentence is Loyola.
Then the second half sees us standing around on offense, taking difficult shots, and playing hero ball. We only outscore Loyola by 12. We only had 9 turnovers for the game and out rebounded the smaller Greyhounds by 23, but this was not a physical game as evidenced by us only shooting 9 freethrows while only making 4. Against North Carolina, we will probably take 35 freethrows, but if we only make 15, we will get beat. The Greyhounds put up 33 threes, making 7. We only put up 27 and made 10. Why don't we take at least 35 shots from the arc like Pope wants? Simple, we play too much hero ball and 90% of those shots are going to be drives to the basket.
Pope ball requires being in great physical shape and frequent substitution; we are adverse to both. We actually played some zone last night, YEA!!!! Chandler and Noah both shot 50% from the arc, but only took 10 shots making 5. The rest of the team took 17, but only made 5. Granted Horn took 2 wild 3s and missed, but Williams made a lucky shot to end the first half. Jelavic was 1 for 1 from the arc, but only played 12 minutes. He needs to play more and shoot more 3s. Johnson was 2 for 5 from deep, he needs to shoot more, but look for the pass first; his 3 pointers will come from kickouts. Oweh's shot still needs work; Dioubate didn't play but he doesn't need to ever shoot a 3 pointer again, neither does Garrison…we don't need that from either.
We still have work to do and some bad habits to correct. Feeling entitled and being selfish are hard habits to change. We get one more practice game against Tech, but then play North Carolina and Gonzaga. We get another laugher against NC Central, then have to play Indiana and St. John's. Then another practice game and start the SEC at Bama. We could go 3-4 during that stretch giving us 6 losses at the start of SEC play. Lowe and Quaintance will be playing then, but Lowe is a liability on defense and Quaintance will most likely be a drag on our offense in January. Dioubate will be back to, but he needs to shoot from 15 foot in. We need to go 6-1 during that stretch if we are going to be contenders this year. We need to become bruisers, not heroes. Pope's biggest challenge will be that of having too many good players not getting enough minutes to be happy. Maybe in next year's portal, we need to find a few Indians and fewer Chiefs.
Game ball to Kam for his coinsistent play and production and a better showing by Garrison.. I am not ready to feel that BG has turned any corners yet. We really should have scored a Hundy on this team, but you knew we were going to have some 2nd half problems when we came out with 3 quick T.O.'s.
It wasn't a different line up that sparked a UK win. It was Loyola. They have already proven they can beat group of 5 teams. I have said I believe the Cats will be 7-6 at Christmas. Please Cats, prove me wrong!
Jimmy, I am afraid you are closer to being right than being wrong. Oweh, Dioubate, Lowe, and Garrison are all underperforming. I am not sure that adding Quaintance to the lineup will be enough to overcome that. I do think we will be a better team come March, but we will get a poor seeding due to double digit losses.
I don't see how anyone can even judge our play off of this game. The team we played was terrible of course we are going to win by that much. There tallest player was 2 inches shorter than Kam Williams. Garrison and Moreno should have both had close to 15 rebounds. Moreno is waaaay better than Garrison. As the season goes on Moreno will get better and better. By the end of the year he might be close to JQ. We need to continue to get Chandler the ball. We need to make sure Chandler is shooting at least 6-7 3 pointers a game. We looked like a better team with Mo-D out of the lineup. I say that to say this I think he tries to do to much. I dont think he's ball hogging but when Pope told him to shoot the 3 if your open he took that to heart and every time he would catch the ball behind the 3 point line he is going to shoot it every time. That's not his game. He plays the game similar to Draymond Green. A banger down low who is undersized but makes up for it being very physical. If hes wide open and we are winning by 10 or more shoot the ball. If it's a close game and we need to score take the ball to the basket when the defense collapses throw a lob or kick it over to a shooter. My starting 5 would be the 5 guys who give the most effort in practice. Because it really doesnt matter who starts in Popes offense everyone will play. So put 5 guys out there who are going to put it all on the line and are going to play TEAM BALL. Players that find the open man then crash the glass for a rebound.
We will know what we have when we play North Carolina, Gonzaga, Indiana, St Johns. I want to see how these 4 games play out. If we win 2 and lose 2 we have a chance to be a good team. If we win 3 and lose 1 I will believe a little more of the hype about us this year. If we lose more than we win it's going to be a long season because the SEC is extremely deep from top to bottom. Even the South Carolinas have stud players on the team. The one area that we struggle in is one of the hardest areas to teach as a coach. Toughness, Discipline, and Shooting the dang ball. It's hard to coach these 3 things it's like if you dont have it by now I doubt you ever have it. Toughness you either have it or you don't. We don't at this point but I want to see how we fare in the non conference schedule that will tell me what type of team we are going to be.
We have too many players who don't care about winning if they aren't the stars.
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