When Mark Pope took the Kentucky job, he painted a picture of an offense that would let it fly. He wanted 35 or 40 threes a night, pace through the roof, a modern shot profile that would overwhelm opponents.
Against Indiana? That identity was nowhere to be found.
Kentucky attempted just 15 threes, hitting three of them, in a game that looked nothing like the stylistic promise of the offseason. So what happened? Did the system change? Did Indiana blow up the game plan?
Pope’s answer was a lot more human than tactical.
Mark Pope gives brutally honest answer on why Kentucky stopped bombing threes
In his postgame press conference, Pope didn’t hide behind jargon or pretty coach speak, he was brtuallly honest.
“We are tight, we are tight. We only shot 15 threes today… We are tight. It’s okay. That’s actually a part of basketball,” he said.
He went further, directly naming what a lot of coaches dance around.
“I don’t love the players, like I go make fun of a guy because you got nervous and you got scared. There’s those guys that’s like, ‘Nah, I never get scared.’ C’mon man, what are we talking about. We all get scared, we all get nervous — own it and let’s grow from it.”
This wasn’t a coach calling his players soft. It was a coach acknowledging that the combination of a losing streak, home pressure, and a fan base on edge has seeped into his shooters’ heads.
It is easy to see them think before they release, and sometimes that is a good thing. It helps you not take as many bad shots, but other times it means passing up good ones.
Here’s the part that matters: Pope doesn’t think the answer is to reinvent the offense. He thinks the answer is to win, even when it looks nothing like the offense he sold in April.
Against Indiana, Kentucky shot 38% from the field and 20% from three, but dominated the second half by hammering the offensive glass, forcing turnovers and grinding out free throws. They got what Pope called a "gross" win.
“We will be relentless and we will will ourselves into playing some great basketball,” Pope said. “If we do that enough, then all of a sudden we are going to have some belief that we can win this way and things are going to loosen up a little bit.”
Translation: right now, the goal isn’t to look pretty. The goal is to stack wins, rebuild belief and let the shooting confidence grow back over time.
Shooter’s slumps are usually framed as individual problems. Pope is treating this as a team-level anxiety issue. Calling it what it is, fear, tightness, nerves, is his first step toward untangling it.
Kentucky will eventually need to look like a Mark Pope offense again to hit its ceiling. But for one night, the Wildcats proved they can beat a good team while being tight, scared and imperfect.
Now the question is whether this kind of honest, vulnerable approach from their head coach gives his players permission to breathe, and to start shooting like themselves again.