Cats looking 'inward at each other' to help deal with recent adversity

LEXINGTON, Ky. (KT) — Kentucky coach Mark Pope and the Wildcats are searching from within to find answers after suffering back-to-back setbacks twice in the past month.

“A key for us is just to keep looking inward at each other,” Pope said Thursday. “The most important thing that we can do to deal with frustration, worry, doubt, failure or setbacks is we can keep getting in a huddle where we are actually looking at each other because that's where you find trust, faith, energy, enthusiasm, care, love and all those things that actually are energy givers.”

The Kentucky coach added “that’s the thing that we’re leaning into the most” coming off two straight losses, including a 98-84 loss at Ole Miss earlier this week. The Wildcats have lost four of their last five games going into Saturday's contest against South Carolina.

“We talked about that for a long time (Thursday) morning in our film session,” he said. “Right now, we're going to find these answers in each other. That's really important and it's really true. It's actually true in basketball — it's true in life.”

Pope said shortening the rotation from nine players to possibly six or seven players isn’t a solution because of his team’s style of play on the offensive end of the court.

"For us, the pace of the game is really important,” he said. “It's important to how we play. The way we function offensively is because of our pace and because of our movement away from the ball and all that it takes energy. We're an energy team.”

Pope added the Wildcats also are addressing concerns on the defensive end of the floor. Without point guard Lamont Butler in the lineup, Kentucky has struggled on defense and surrendered 89 points in a loss to Arkansas and 98 to Ole Miss. Both teams were scoring an average of less than 80 points per game prior to defeating the Wildcats.

The answer?

"We just need to stretch what we're asking of our guys and what we're asking of themselves and each other," Pope said. "We're at the point of the season, like, ah man, maybe there are some misses on my part. Certainly, our dedication to everyday shell defense has been something where I've kind of failed us a little bit. It's a piece where we need to get better, and our ball- screen defense.

“This requirement of anticipating the pickup and recovering this part of that being the signal that's guaranteed and then a full devotion to sprint to recover is really, really important for us. That's something that we'll spend some time working on.”

As for Butler, Pope is hopeful he returns to the court sooner rather than later.

“He’s gonna move around on the court, non-contact, a little bit today,” Pope said. “And we’ll just kind of see how it is (Friday). I don’t know exactly when (his return is) going be. I really don’t. We’ll kind of vibe it out.”

Gametracker: South Carolina at Kentucky, noon, Saturday. TV/Radio: ESPN, UK Radio Network.