Mark Pope 'Opponents will break character': How Kentucky Forces Defenses into Extremes

Mark Pope's press conferences are always insightful in one way or another. He is entertaining and engaging and clearly knows basketball. As Big Blue Nation learns more about how he coaches and who he is, these little nuggets of insight continue to pop to the surface. In his presser the day before Jackson State, a small nugget on opposing defenses stuck out.

It was really just Pope explaining how to shoot the target of 30 three-point shots a game, which is its own wrinkle to Pope's philosophy. He mentioned that defenses often will pendulum swing on them, and they don't see the same defense they see on tape. He said, "Every time you face a new opponent, you're getting a new feel; there's a new scheme, a new game plan, a new physicality, a new way to approach us. It's one of the things we found in the last couple of years is teams tend to go to the extreme to guard us. They kind of get out of character, so you never really know what you are going to see. You don't see the normal defensive game plan that you see on film."

He goes on to explain how he wants his players to internalize how they are being guarded and how to adjust and take advantage. But this feels important and should be celebrated. Pope is saying that when teams play against his scheme, they get out of character and have to press or extend and go to extremes to take away a style of play. This will matter, especially in a post-season run when the turnaround times are fast, but it will matter week to week. When teams have to adjust to a place where they aren't comfortable, they are playing in a way that doesn't make sense to the players; there will be holes and gaps that Kentucky can exploit.

He was talking about how Lipscomb was working to take away the three, which is why you saw fewer three-point shots attempted than the targeted goal. However, Kentucky took advantage and exploited the Bison in other ways. Pope is always scheming and adjusting, and he's forcing Kentucky's opponents to be out of sync and out of character. This is a good thing.