A month ago, panic was spreading fast around Kentucky basketball.
The Wildcats’ offense, built on spacing and high-volume three-point shooting, wasn’t producing. Kentucky was connecting on just 32 percent of its shots from deep, and Mark Pope’s “bombs away” system looked broken. Outside of Collin Chandler, consistent perimeter shooting was hard to find, and frustration began to mount among fans and analysts alike.
Mark Pope never flinched.
While the results on the court raised alarms, the numbers behind the scenes told a very different story. Throughout the summer and into the season, Kentucky’s NOAH Shooting System data was elite. Several Wildcats graded in the 90s, meaning their shots were online more than 90 percent of the time. Pope trusted that kind of precision wouldn’t suddenly disappear once the games began.
For a stretch, it looked like it had.
Still, Pope stayed the course, repeatedly preaching patience and insisting the math would eventually work itself out.
Now, it finally has.
Kentucky is shooting 38.7 percent from three in SEC play, the best mark in the conference. The turnaround has been driven by elite efficiency from Denzel Aberdeen (47.1%), Otega Oweh (43.5%), and Collin Chandler (47.1%). With three players above 43 percent from deep, defenses are being stretched well beyond their comfort zones.
But according to Pope, the improved shooting isn’t the real breakthrough.
The real difference is MP4T — Making Plays for Teammates.
Kentucky’s ball movement has taken a major leap forward, creating cleaner looks and better rhythm. The Wildcats aren’t just taking more threes — they’re generating better ones because players are creating for each other.
“We’re actually shooting the ball better because we’re making plays for each other at a higher level,” Pope said. “Hopefully that continues, because if it does, we have a chance to be a really good offensive team.
The numbers work themselves out over time.”
That belief was publicly challenged following Kentucky’s matchup with Alabama. Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats geared his defensive strategy toward forcing the ball inside and suggested at halftime that Kentucky wasn’t interested in passing. Postgame, he went a step further, implying Pope’s offensive numbers were inflated by games against lesser competition.
As SEC play continues, those criticisms are becoming harder to defend.
Kentucky is sharing the ball, stretching defenses, and turning patience into production. The shooting struggles sparked panic — but Mark Pope saw something no one else did, and now the Wildcats are beginning to look exactly like the team he envisioned.
