When Kentucky loaded up its non-conference schedule with heavyweights like Michigan State, Louisville, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Indiana, and St. John’s, it raised a fair question: is this gauntlet the best way for first-year head coach Mark Pope to prepare his team for a deep March run?
Darius Miller, a cornerstone of Kentucky’s 2012 national championship squad, isn’t ready to give a definitive answer-but he does see the upside.
“Honestly, I don’t know the answer to that, and you never know until you know,” Miller said. “We could have come out and played great, maybe not had injuries, and that could have changed a bunch of things. But I will say this: I think by playing these teams early on, we’re learning a lot of lessons early that we won’t have to fix later in the season.”
That’s the bet Pope seems to be making. It’s not about having a spotless record in December-it’s about being battle-tested by the time the games really start to count.
And for a program with championship aspirations, there’s no shortcut to being elite. You have to go through teams like the ones Kentucky is facing now.
The Wildcats picked up their first marquee win last week against Indiana. It was the kind of victory that can settle a locker room and show a young team what it’s capable of.
Now they’ve got another chance to build momentum when they face St. John’s in Atlanta on Saturday.
Miller sees these early-season matchups as more than just résumé builders-they’re diagnostic tools.
“I think seeing where we are, where we stand early and having time to fix whatever we need to fix to gain that momentum and then to strike around February or March, that’s not bad at all,” he said. “I feel like we have the opportunity to do that by playing these teams early on so we get to see where we’re at.”
That kind of self-awareness is crucial for a team trying to find its identity under a new coach. Pope, known for his energy and innovation, is still in the process of molding this group. And while the wins and losses matter, the bigger picture is about growth, chemistry, and resilience.
“We get to see what we need to work on and fix, and hopefully we can still gain that momentum by tournament time,” Miller added. “I really do still believe in Pope and hope the fans will stick with this team because sometimes it just takes longer to get things right than it does other years.”
For now, Kentucky is still in the lab, tinkering with lineups, tightening the defense, and searching for consistency. But if they can keep learning from these early tests, they just might be ready to ace the ones that come in March.