Kentucky is working on rebounding and physical play going into Saturday night's game at Mississippi State. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky coach Mark Pope isn’t returning to the drawing board after his team’s 82-69 loss to Georgia earlier this week.
Instead, the Kentucky coach wants his squad to stay the course and focus on improving, rather than switching gears in mid-season, following the first Southeastern Conference loss of the year.
“It’s not triage, where we have a bad team,” Pope said Thursday. “We have a really good team. We didn’t play particularly well and so there’s a lot of things that were a little bit anomalous, where we just didn’t play great. And certainly, Georgia had some contribution to that.”
An immediate concern, Pope said, is rebounding, a strength for most of the season, but not lately.
“We’re continuing to work on the glass right now,” Pope said. “That’s been something interesting because we had been one of the top defensive rebounding percentage teams in the country, and that kind of bit us, a little bit.
“We’re rethinking some approaches there that hopefully will see immediate progress on because we’ve been really good.”
Along with rebounding, Pope and his staff also have addressed the importance of becoming a better team physically, especially against conference foes.
“We’ve just got to be good in this league right now, with the physicality and the way this is being played.”
The Kentucky coach said there’s a fine line when it comes to determining how physical the Wildcats need to compete in a league that traditionally has been a physical conference.
“The game always gets more and more physical in the league, and so our guys understanding — and there’s also a part of understanding where you can be really, really physical and where you can’t,” he said. “That’s part of our determinations. There are a lot of facets to that. One is just the physics aspect of it, of having a low center of gravity and kind of being the hit-first guy and a first hit, and second, there’s all the schematics and the skill of it.
“There’s also the mentality of it, and the IQ of it,” he added. “The mentality of it is kind of this aggressive side of it where you’re always thinking about contact, contact, contact, and then the IQ of it is understanding when and where it’s appropriate and where it can be utilized and where it’s important.”
Pope added the team’s 14 turnovers also were a concern. Kentucky’s assist-to-turnover ratio (1.94) ranks No. 3 in the nation but had letdowns in losses to Clemson, Ohio State, and Georgia in that category.
“We’ve been really good in terms of ball protection,” Pope said. “I think we’ve been number one in the country. I think we’re close, so I don’t think it’s reinventing the wheel for us on the ball protection side. We just didn’t do it well in this game. There are certain areas that we’re going to continue to grow and fine-tune, but there’s not a lot of total restructuring going on.”
NEXT GAME: Kentucky at Mississippi State, 8:30 p.m., Saturday. TV/Radio: SECN, UK Radio Network.
5 Responses
I agree, the turnovers were from very aggressive defense from Georgia! We had a couple of players that didn’t engage mentally or physically to the challenge! No energy or intensity! And on the Coaching end I didn’t see any movement from corners on a half court game! Or positive post play catch and shoot position to score! I don’t understand why a Zone . 1-3-1 or a 2-3 was not at least tried, because we couldn’t get going off the boards ! With the fouls and being out rebounded ! It looks like a no brainer strategy to me ! Sometimes in the heat of battle we can’t see the forest for the trees! GoBigBlue love my team and Coaches!
Coach Pope & his staff have done a superior job and most players have gone all in @ 100% but those who relapse back into selfish play are costly.
The A:TO ratio is one of my favorite stats to quickly analyze how well any team is playing together.
UK losses have been hurt by poor A:TO ratios. The wins have had exceptional A:TO stats. That can overcome a lot of other problems.
Offensive rebounding is also a difference maker.
Just listen to the coach & do what he teaches & UK will be tough to beat any night.
If the Cats are hot from three, they can win. If not, they are gonna lose. They don’t have a dominant big man inside. They don’t have a guy who can get to the bucket consistently either. It’s live or die by the three.Their rebounding and team defense is mediocre at best. The free-throw shooting is no better. The SEC road is gonna be long for Ky.
Agree with you Jimmy. You are exactly right.
Agree. We have a lot of deficiencies, but our biggest problem by far in our losses (and even some wins) is that we have shot horribly. I know we are a better shooting team and I think that should improve, hopefully really soon. What Pope has done with this team is remarkable and they have been an absolute joy to watch. I think we really miss Kerr and hope he returns soon. Go Cats!!!