C.L. BrownLouisville Courier Journal
Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope became an offensive innovator out of necessity.
He’d always been willing to try new things and use analytics to shape his decisions. But it wasn’t until he had to usher BYU into its first season in the Big 12 that he fully embraced the wide-open offense he’ll bring to the Wildcats.
Pope’s first team at BYU led the nation in 3-point shooting percentage, but in his first four seasons in Provo, Utah, his teams were nothing special from the 3-point line. Last season, Pope flipped the Cougars into a team that took more 3s than 2s for the first time in his nine years as a head coach.
The Cougars didn’t have the athletes nor the depth to go toe-to-toe with conference heavyweights like Kansas, Baylor and Houston. But it didn’t take Pope long to figure out they could outshoot their opponents. It allowed Pope to take a team picked to finish 13th in the league to a fourth-place tie and the NCAA Tournament.
If this sounds familiar, it should.
Once upon a time, Pope’s mentor did it too.
When the 3-point line was fully implemented by the NCAA during the 1986-87 season, coach Rick Pitino’s Providence team was in a similar situation in the Big East.
Pitino admittedly was looking for a gimmick to help the Friars compete against the conference juggernauts like Georgetown and Syracuse and the 3-point line suited his purpose.
Providence led the nation in 3-point shooting, averaging 8.2 per game on 19.6 attempts. The rest of Division I was far behind, with just 9.2 attempts and 3.5 makes in that first season. The Friars shot their way to the 1987 Final Four, averaging 42.1% from behind the arc.
Pope joked at his introductory news conference about Pitino’s influence.
“Certainly, we’re taking a lot from Coach P’s DNA and it’s actually, we’re growing into it,” Pope said. “Coach P I think sometimes looks at us and says, ‘You copycat. Man, stop taking my stuff.’”
He may have duplicated Pitino’s approach philosophically, but the execution of it is all Pope.
BYU took 50.4% of all of its shot attempts from behind the 3-point line last season, which ranked fourth nationally according to KenPom.com. And the Cougars’ 32.0 3-point attempts per game were the second most in the nation. (New Louisville coach Pat Kelsey’s College of Charleston team ranked third at 30.6 attempts per game.)
By comparison, Pitino’s ‘87 Final Four team only took 30.3% of its shot attempts from 3 and the highest percentage any of his teams have taken was Louisville’s 2005 Final Four team that hoisted 42.1% of its shots from behind the arc.
It’s safe to assume UK will take somewhere in the vicinity of 40-50% of its shots from 3 this season.
Pope’s put a premium on signing shooters in his dash to fill out the roster from the transfer portal.
UK is still in the mix to land Chaz Lanier, a 6-foot-4 guard from North Florida. He ranked eighth nationally last season averaging 3.3 made 3s per game. Lanier is also considering BYU and Tennessee.
Lanier would give UK a formidable pair beside Pope’s best transfer signing to date. Koby Brea, a 6-foot-6 guard from Dayton, led the nation shooting 49.7% from 3 last season. Pope said in a statement that "Brea and this group were going to take Big Blue nation on an incredible ride.”
“By the numbers, Koby Brea is the most efficient mid-to-high major player in college basketball in the last decade,” he added. “He’s the best returning shooter in college basketball next year... He will be key in allowing us to play the style of basketball that we love the most.”
UK got a glimpse of that style last season. Although former coach John Calipari was slow to embrace the five-out offense, he did put it to use with a roster that was better suited for it.
When the Cats were on, it was a fun team to watch play. Pope is looking to bring that back on a regular basis to Rupp Arena.
Pope will be able to sign more athletic and more talented players at UK than his stops at BYU and Utah Valley. So if he decides to continue playing this way, it will no longer be out of necessity.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown atclbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at@CLBrownHoopsand subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latestto make sure you never miss one of hiscolumns.
