During CBS's Kentucky Basketball Confidential, Mark Pope said, "There is nowhere like Kentucky basketball, there is nowhere that cares as much as we do." That's why this offseason has to be done right. Looking back over the painful wreck of a season that we all just witnessed, it was glaringly obvious that Kentucky just didn't have any shot creators or playmakers.
Fans put too much into this to watch another 14-loss season. Mark Pope can't repeat the same mistakes as last year.
Offseason misses create season long mistakes
It wasn't that Mark Pope didn't have a plan A; he did. He signed Acaden Lewis to come in and be the backup point guard. But things there fell apart, and Lewis went to Villanova. He averaged 12 points and 5 assists a night as a freshman. That would have been huge for Kentucky. But Pope's insistence on spreading the minutes around deterred Lewis, who wanted a more featured role.
That left the Transfer Portal as plan B. He started by trying to secure Dedan Thomas or Donovan Dent, but both said no. He moved on to Silas Demary Jr, but he too said no. That meant Kentucky was down to their 4th option, Jaland Lowe, before they got a yes.
But then the mistake that changed the season happened. Mark Pope, for some reason, decided that they didn't need a backup point guard. He thought sliding Collin Chandler or Denzel Aberdeen over for backup minutes, or allowing freshman Jasper Johnson to play point, would be okay.
Chandler and Johnson had trouble just bringing the ball up the floor, and proved they could not initiate the offense. So, it all fell to Denzel Aberdeen, who Mark Pope said came to Kentucky to be a bucket-getting 2-guard.
He did his best, and he was by far the best of the bunch, but he still averaged just above 3 assists a game and led the team. That number is the lowest assist output leader in a full season since 2012, when Kentucky lost to Robert Morris in the NIT (COVID season was lower as well). The offense just never looked comfortable; everything was hard.
Kentucky was 87th in the country when it comes to effective field goal percentage, and 158th in 3-point shooting percentage. The shooting was so poor because they had no one to generate shots for the shot makers. Passes were late or never arrived at all. And too many times, the wrong guys were shooting the shots. That is a direct reflection of the lack of playmaking this team had.
Mark Pope admitted that Kentucky was desperate for playmakers; now, he has to do something about it as the portal opens Tuesday.