Kentucky hoops had a historically bad win-loss record last year. The roster was full of promise at the beginning of the season, but that promise ultimately went unfulfilled. Injuries were the main culprit when it comes to that failure, but there also ended up being a plain lack of high-end stars.
Once Jaland Lowe went down, Kentucky had no point guard to control the offense consistently. And then, when Jayden Quaintance's knee started having problems, Kentucky's season truly went off the rails. The Cats bounced back to win a tournament game, following a fairly strong midseason stretch, but nobody was fully satisfied with the final product.
Mark Pope, as a result, got to work and went all out for the No. 1 recruit, in Tyran Stokes. Falling short there, as well as on two or three additional prioritized players in the portal, the pressure was boiling for Pope to find a way to secure a stud - Will Stein style.
Milan Momcilovic is that stud, and his five-star portal addition puts Kentucky's current roster comfortably in front of last year's team.
A Direct (Favorable) Comparison
In my own opinion, Kentucky improved at nearly every position, across the board. Let's take a look at an assumed starting lineup, for the sake of brevity:
• Jaland Lowe < Zoom Diallo
• Denzel Aberdeen < Alex Wilkins
• Kam Williams (1st Year) < Kam Williams (2nd Year)
• Otega Oweh = Milan Momcilovic
• Malachi Moreno (1st Year) < Malachi Moreno (2nd Year)
Jayden Quaintance, when healthy, could've been the best player of this whole comparison; but he wasn't that in Lexington, and so it was difficult to factor him in. Otherwise, Mark Pope has improved the talent on his year-three roster by a wide margin.
Kentucky has more shooters, more backcourt depth (hallelujah), and more methods for Pope to deploy a team full of veteran guys. This roster looks a lot more like a Mark Pope roster than last year's team did.
Then, Pope course-corrected and tried to go with a defense-first approach that didn't pan out. Now, with Momcilovic coming aboard, there are four guys who have shot it over 38% from behind the arc on the roster, and all four could technically play at the same time (Morton, Williams, Momcilovic, McBride). Shew.
Will Kentucky have a better season once the ball tips? Who knows for sure, but on paper, the roster is a significant upgrade in terms of fit and talent. All signs point to the improvement that Kentucky fans have desired since Pope was first hired. This is a Kentucky team with a nationally competitive upside that, at their high-scoring best, should be hard for anyone to beat.
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