When Mark Pope was hired to fill the coaching need of the Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team, both the program and its fans knew major changes were coming.
There was going to be more emphasis on recruiting multi-year players instead of all one-and-done players.
Pope (and the program as a whole) was going to lean into the fans instead of there being a ton of friction between the two.
Focusing on winning every game was going to be the top priority instead of all of the coaching staff’s focus being on player development for the next level.
There was also going to be a change in the offensive scheme — a major change.
Pope has a proven track record of knowing offense and being a much better “X’s and O’s” coach than former head coach John Calipari.
That’s not a “shot” at Calipari because every coach has their own strengths and weaknesses, but it was certainly a breath of fresh air for Kentucky fans to have a modernized offensive approach.
Part of Pope’s scheme was going to embrace taking (and making) many more 3-point shots than Kentucky fans had been accustomed to.
Calipari had last year’s Kentucky team headed in the direction of shooting (and making) more 3-pointers than his past teams, but that was also in large part due to how many talented guards Kentucky had on the team.
While living & dying by the 3-point shot can sometimes be a scary agenda, recruiting high-percentage 3-point shooters and having a coach who can draw up plays to create space for those shooters makes a world’s difference.
Thanks to quality depth, Kentucky has several threats from long-range on the court at all times, and this led to the team notching their place in the record books for the historic program.
In the team’s 91-83 win over Missouri on Saturday, these Wildcats became just the fifth team in school history with 300 made 3-pointers in a single season with 304 total makes.
Here’s where they stand amongst the top five.
1992-93: 340
2023-24: 327
1991-92: 317
2024-25: 304
1993-94: 301
It came after Kentucky had its best 3-point shooting game of the season percentage-wise, hitting 11/20) (55%) from deep in a hostile Senior Day environment. Koby Brea hit three of them, while Andrew Carr, Otega Oweh, and Collin Chandler each had two.
Considering the backcourt injuries Kentucky has battled this season and the number of minutes they’ve had to rely on their freshmen stepping up, this is a pretty impressive accomplishment.
1992-93: 340
2023-24: 327
1991-92: 317
2024-25: 304
1993-94: 301
It came after Kentucky had its best 3-point shooting game of the season percentage-wise, hitting 11/20) (55%) from deep in a hostile Senior Day environment. Koby Brea hit three of them, while Andrew Carr, Otega Oweh, and Collin Chandler each had two.
Considering the backcourt injuries Kentucky has battled this season and the number of minutes they’ve had to rely on their freshmen stepping up, this is a pretty impressive accomplishment.
