Denzel Aberdeen has scored 55 points in UK's three-game winning streak. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Denzel Aberdeen has been giving Kentucky a lift during its three-game winning streak in the absence of point guard Jaland Lowe.
“He’s been really big,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said Tuesday. “He took a giant step last week. It’s having a better sense of what we’re trying to accomplish on the court. He made huge plays. His decision making was elite, his ball protection was elite, his shot making was elite.”
Aberdeen scored 22 points in Kentucky’s 80-78 win at Tennessee last Saturday and had 17 in an exciting 75-74 win at LSU on Jan. 14. He was equally impressive with 16 points in a 92-68 comeback win over Mississippi State on Jan. 10.
“I thought he had an incredible week,” Pope said. “I don’t know who in our league probably had a better week than him. I thought he was incredible under duress. I’m really proud of him.”
Pope added that Aberdeen hasn’t reached his ceiling just yet and has plenty of room to grow as the Wildcats delve deeper into the conference schedule.
“I think he’s still got a huge upside,” Pope said. “I think he did a really good job of taking what was there (last week). I thought his reads were elite. I thought they were really good.”
The Wildcats (12-6, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) return home for a pair of games this week, starting with Texas on Wednesday night. The Longhorns (11-7, 2-3) dropped a 74-70 decision to Texas A&M on Saturday, but the team’s league victories were against Vanderbilt (80-64) and Alabama (92-88).
“This Texas team … they are potent offensively,” Pope said. “They just have weapons everywhere. They’re one of the top teams in the country getting to the free throw line. They have the No. 1 player in the country in getting to the free throw line, free-throw rate.
“They’re one of the top teams in the country on the offensive glass. They can hurt you in isolation. They hurt you off handoffs and off screens. They can hurt you in transition, and they do it from all five spots. … (they are) a good team, and we’ll have all the challenge we can possibly stand coming to us and we can’t wait to get to it.”
One Response
Pope, for lack of finding anything else that works, is officially endorsing hero ball. Pope has no answer for our slow starts so he says do what you have to do to score…even if that means playing hero ball. That plays to Aberdeen, Oweh, Garrison, and Dioubate's advantage as they both want the offense to go through them. That means less time for Jelavic and Noah. Johnson will see limited playing time to keep Aberdeen out of foul trouble which will result in him playing more hero ball to prove his worth. Being desperate for wins, Pope is abandoning his Pope ball play that calls for more passing. We lose synergy as a team and Moreno's impact will be lessened as the above 4 players will hog the ball from now on. This may be the only way to salvage the season since Pope failed to win this group over to his way of thinking.
Texas' strength is their speed and quickness. We won't be able to guard them man to man without getting in foul trouble and falling behind in the first half. Pope will have to play more zone to prevent this. The same will be true of Ole Miss on Saturday. Both games are in Rupp and are must win games, but our krytomite is speed and quickness. We are favored to win both, but with the dissension that is obvious on our team, I won't be surprised if we lose both. There simply are not enough rabbits for us to keep pulling out of the hat to win games in the last minute or last second.
The following 2 games will be at Vanderbilt and Arkansas. These next 4 games will show if we will be able to compete or simply fold to the better SEC teams. Pope is going all in on hero ball. It is easier to stop one or two ball hogs versus a ball moving team. Being the top shooting team from the arc should mandate team ball, but the 4 Amigos don't want to play that way and Pope caved in to them. I don't think it will work but we will soon see.
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