Mark Story: Mark Pope made Kentucky fans a vow Saturday night. It won't be an easy promise to keep.

Mark Story, Lexington Herald-Leader on Dec 17, 2025

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — With 13:18 remaining Saturday night in Kentucky’s renewed border skirmish with Indiana, the most surprising moment of the UK men’s basketball season to date occurred at Rupp Arena.

UK wing Kam Williams fed the ball to big man Brandon Garrison on the left high post. Williams cut hard toward the basket, received a nifty pass from Garrison and scored on a give-and-go layup.

In most Kentucky basketball seasons, such a moment would be unremarkable. For the offensively-challenged 2025-26 edition of the Wildcats (7-4), however, it was the most-fluid moment of the season so far.

Showing the grit and fight appropriate for a desperate team that had lost its first four games of the season against high-level competition, Kentucky rallied past visiting Indiana for a 72-60 win.

The Wildcats got big contributions from the back-from-injury duo of Mouhamed Dioubate (14 points, 12 rebounds, five steals) and Jaland Lowe (13 points, five rebounds, two assists).

Even so, UK won in spite of shooting 37.9% from the field (22 of 58) and 20% (3 of 15) on 3-point tries.

In the 47 games in which Pope has coached the Wildcats, the 72 points Kentucky put on the Rupp Arena scoreboards were its fewest in a winning effort.

It’s hard to conceive of a Mark Pope-coached team being as bad offensively as the 2025-26 Cats have so far been.

In UK’s five combined games to date against power-conference foes and Gonzaga (a power conference-caliber men’s basketball program without the official designation as such), the numbers paint a picture of Kentucky offensive futility:

— The Wildcats are making 38.1% of their field-goal attempts (113 of 296) in those contests;

— UK has been converting 3-point shots (30 of 126) at the anemic rate of 23.8%;

— Kentucky has been held under 70 points in three of its five high-level games — the Cats scored 66 vs. Michigan State, 64 against North Carolina and 59 vs. Gonzaga.

In marquee games to date, UK’s combined scoring average is 69.8.

Scoring more than 69 is important for Kentucky in the Pope era because the Wildcats are 0-8 over the past two seasons when they have scored in the 60s (and 0-9 when they do not score at least 72 points).

Pope, of course, came back to Lexington to become head coach at his college alma mater with the reputation as one of the better offensive tacticians in men’s college hoops.

Of the five BYU teams Pope coached, three ranked in the top 25 in adjusted offensive efficiency in the Pomeroy Ratings, two in the top 15.

Last season, Pope’s first Kentucky squad finished 10th in adjusted offensive efficiency.

Given that history, watching a Pope-led team struggle to score to the extent the current Cats have so far done against good teams seems as unnatural as if Chick-fil-A started selling hamburgers.

“The chances of us playing a game right now where we are just firing on all cylinders and making every shot, that’s probably not where we are in our confidence, in our courage and our spirit right now,” Pope said. “Right now, I’d like to tip the needle and bring back some belief.”

Against Indiana, the presence of Lowe (whose season has so far been limited by shoulder injuries) and Dioubate (an ankle issue) changed the offensive equation somewhat for UK.

The 6-1, 170-pound Lowe gave Kentucky the capacity to break down a defense off the dribble it has lacked when its presumptive lead guard has been sidelined.

“J-Lowe certainly helps us,” Pope said. “He was really terrific, for the most part, being able to kind of re-attack and re-attack and re-attack and ... use the seal screen, and kind of find a way that actually makes some things happen.”

Dioubate, a 6-7, 230-pound forward, pulled five offensive rebounds and helped Kentucky compensate for its bad shooting with an 18-6 advantage in second-chance points.

Said Lowe: “Mo is a big bully, man. We need a big bully on our team.”

On paper, Kentucky’s next foe, No. 22 St. John’s (6-3) on Saturday in the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta, does not appear to be an opponent that a struggling offense gets well against.

Rick Pitino’s Red Storm are holding opponents to 40.8% on field-goal attempts and only 30.6% on 3-point tries. St. John’s ranks 15th in adjusted defensive efficiency in the Pomeroy Ratings.

While questions swirl over whether Kentucky prioritized offensive skill and shooting enough in its roster construction to play the way Pope’s teams typically do, the UK head man made an interesting vow Saturday night after the Wildcats had ground down Indiana.

“I do think we have a chance to be an elite offensive team,” Pope said. “... We’re gonna get great man. We’re gonna be relentless, and we will will ourselves into playing some great basketball.”

Given what we’ve watched from the Cats so far this season vs. high-level foes, getting UK anywhere close to “elite” offensively will qualify as a coaching miracle.

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