Mark Pope didn’t just sound optimistic about Kentucky’s offense on Wednesday in Birmingham. He sounded convinced.
At the SEC Basketball Tipoff, Pope said this Wildcats group is “probably the best shooting team I’ve ever had.” That kind of line turns heads on its own, especially when it comes from a coach who has spent years around high-level offenses.
Pope laid out his case plainly: “We are walking into the season with a whole bunch of confidence and optimism about what we can grow into. I think this team on the offensive side of the ball is long and skilled.
It can really shoot. It’s probably the best shooting team I’ve ever had.”
That’s a bold statement, and it carries even more weight when you look at the shooting numbers across his career. At Kentucky, his teams shot 34% last year and 38% in his first season. Before that at BYU, the percentages bounced around: 35% in 2023-24, 34% in 2022-23, 35% in 2021-22, 37% in 2020-21, and 42% in his first year in Provo in 2019-20.
That 2019-20 BYU team set a high bar, becoming the best 3-point shooting team in the country. Pope’s point on Wednesday was that this Kentucky roster might be able to top even that group.
Milan Momcilovic is a big reason why the conversation even starts there. Pope added a proven shooter to a group that already has players who have shown real growth from deep.
Zoom Diallo shot 32% from 3-point range at Washington last season after improving by 14% from his freshman year. Alex Wilkins made 33% of his threes in his freshman season before transferring to Lexington.
Malachi Moreno attempted just three 3-point shots last season and missed all three, but there’s a sense that number could rise.
The larger picture for Kentucky is simple enough: this offense should score, and it should do it in a few different ways. Pope described the group as “long and skilled,” and the early looks from Big Blue Madness, Pro Day and other clips have backed that up.
Whether this really becomes Pope’s best shooting team is still to be determined. But based on how he talked about it Wednesday, he clearly believes Kentucky has the firepower to make the argument.
In Other News...
Greg McElroy's New Top 15 Just Raised The Stakes For Kentucky
Greg McElroys latest Top 15 on his Always College Football podcast turned the usual early-season ranking chatter into a little more than background noise for Kentucky. The ESPN analyst put Georgia at No. 1, with Indiana and Miami right behind, and used the list to frame how teams are being judged on performance so far and the hurdles still ahead.
For Kentucky, the relevance is less about the top three than the message embedded in McElroys rankings: the room for error keeps shrinking as the season moves forward. With the conference landscape already taking shape and every week carrying more weight, the Wildcats are now operating in a space where attention from the national conversation can swing quickly depending on what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Kentucky-Louisville Trash Talk Just Put December Bragging Rights On The Line
The Kentucky-Louisville rivalry always finds a way to sharpen itself in the days before tipoff, and this year it has a family twist. Karter Knox, once a Kentucky pledge and now a Louisville player, has been trading trash talk with his brother Kevin Knox as the teams head toward their December meeting in Lexington, adding a little extra edge to a game that already carries plenty of baggage.
Karter Knox has made it clear where his confidence sits, backing Louisville and describing the Cardinals as the best team in the nation. With the rivalry history still fresh and Louisville player Malachi Moreno also talking about payback, the buildup has only added fuel to a matchup that will mean more than just another early-season result for both sides. [Read more 🡒]
Kentucky Suddenly Has Two Injury Concerns Fans Cant Ignore
Kentuckys basketball programs were in the spotlight in Birmingham for SEC Media Days, with Mark Pope and Kenny Brooks both working through the usual preseason talk about roster makeup, expectations and the players who will shape each season. It was the kind of annual checkpoint that usually keeps attention on November basketball, but the conversation around the Wildcats has a way of widening fast when injuries enter the picture.
One of the bigger concerns now is on the football side, where CJ Baxter was listed as questionable for the next game, and on the basketball side, where Otega Owehs rookie NBA season has already been cut short after the Oklahoma City Thunder confirmed an Achilles injury. For a fan base trying to track the health of multiple programs at once, it is the sort of update that changes the tone of the week, and there is more context and interview reaction available on the KSR YouTube channel. [Read more 🡒]