Mark Pope and Wildcats recap bounce-back win over South Carolina, plus postgame notes

Back in the W column.

Riding a two-game losing skid and needing a win in the worst way, the Kentucky Wildcats turned in one of their most complete performances of the season, taking down South Carolina 80-57.

Kentucky’s much-maligned defense held the Gamecocks to their lowest first-half point total of the season (19) and their second-lowest overall total (57).

The Cats won’t get much credit for beating a team that’s winless in SEC play, but this was exactly what this team needed after their recent struggles and injuries.

After the game, head coach Mark Pope and select players met with the media. Here is a recap of what they said via UK Athletics and our own Dylan Ballard.

MARK POPE: South Carolina, tough team. Really talented guys. Lamont is an unbelievable coach. They have had some adversity but they are still fighting and they are going to find their way in some wins as we go down the second half of the season. Congratulations to them. I’m really proud of our guys and I felt like they responded in a brilliant, brilliant way to some of the things they were trying to do. I was really, really proud of our guys. I will take questions.

Q Mark, just the defense performance in general, what did you think about that and also having Lamont back and what ties into all of that?

MARK POPE: I thought our guys were really focused for the most part. We had some lapses and we can get much better. They bought into being a little bit more disruptive and a little bit more aggressive at the point of attack. Our rotations were okay-ish in a growing process. I thought our bigs were pretty diligent in their assignments, they had complicated assignments tonight. Their job description was pretty lengthy tonight and I thought they were terrific. It certainly helps having Lamont back. The defensive start of the game, no doubt, no question asked is, I mean this Koby Brea was unbelievable tonight. He was incredible on the defensive end. His gaps were incredible and his digs were incredible. We were bringing in a third defender to ball screens to cover the short role he was unbelievable at that and his ball pressure was great. It was smart, it wasn’t belligerent. Kind of like, pickup 94 feet. It was really smart and intelligent. I can’t be more proud at that. We had a chance to talk a couple of days ago just about the challenges ahead of us. He’s had his best two days of practice. The last two days on the defensive end. I thought it carried into the game and I thought he was brilliant. When you do that you end up playing great. I mean, he’s six assists and zero turnover and by the end of the game he was throwing no look passes, right? He was really forceful downhill. So all of that stuff was an add on to him being so, so good defensively. I thought he was exceptional. Very much helped us having Lamont back. Just his presence. We just taped him up and rolled him out there. But his presence really helped us for sure.

Q Coach, of course you guys missed having Lamont. Coach Paris talked about it got people back in their normal roles. When Lamont came out, Jaxson slid over to the point guard again. How important was these last few weeks to see what some other guys were capable of and getting more comfortable in roles needed in later.

MARK POPE: Certainly, we have a real comfort level with Jaxson at the point now that we didn’t have before because he’s been there 40 minutes a game for the last four games, right? That helps us and gives us a little bit more leeway in kind of how we work the rotation. I would just like to get those two guys healthy. It’s nice to have them on the floor, that’s step one, can we get them on the floor healthy would be beautiful.

Q Mark, over here. On Koby, you talked about Koby being exceptional. How much of coaching is getting kids to do something, maybe something they didn’t even know that they were capable of doing?

MARK POPE: I think that great coaches have a magical touch about that. Right? We are a work in progress here. What really makes great coaches is, it’s just like great teachers. It’s great students is probably way more important component of a student-teacher relationship. It’s great students, it’s students that are hungry and passionate and willing and humble and curious that we talk about all the time. And you also get to points in your journey where you might be more willing and desperate to listen and try a new path, right? That’s why, I mean, I’m going to get really philosophical and that’s why it’s so fun to coach because the game kind of rips you to pieces and it put you in a really vulnerable spot and it makes you humble. And it makes you willing to try new things and desperately search for answers. And those are really fun students to have.

Q Coach, I know we been missing out a little bit on the starting lineup over the last couple of weeks. Let’s talk about the bench coming off man, what’s that been like having that energy with Brandon and Trent and especially Trent. He has taken over the past couple of games and I’m sure you kinda recognize that. Can you talk about that and what that carries with your team?

MARK POPE: I thought Trent was really solid tonight. I thought he was really really solid. He brings, you know his energy never wavers and that’s a real gift as a coach trying to piece together a game to know you know exactly what you are going to get when you put Trent on the floor. That includes some young mistakes and includes some places where he’s uncomfortable. You know, his first possession against a one-three-one, he kinda froze up a little bit, that’s what young guys do. Right? You know that. But his energy is always the same. It’s always the same every day in practice. And his focus is always the same and he’s been a real gift. And I thought Brandon Garrison was terrific tonight. Minus one moment that we would like to take back, I thought he was actually really really special tonight.

Q Coach, to kind of piggyback off of that. Brandon seems like a unique character to say at least on and off the court. How do you kind of balance the good Brandon energy and then maybe some of the bad Brandon energy that you talked about?

MARK POPE: It’s all good Brandon, it’s all good. We don’t love people in slices. If that’s what makes people great is the whole thing, right? And he’s, I mean if you spent two seconds with Brandon Garrison you can’t help but love him because he’s got a joy and innocence and passion about him and a willingness and he’s just, like, there is not a duplicitous bone in his body in the sense of like how he approaches people. You know, when you see his face he’s wide-eyed and big smile and he’s just kind of like, you know going to tell you how he is and how he’s feeling and what he’s doing. He got a real joy to him and he’s a real special young man and a real pleasure to coach them. And he’s growing, you know, sometimes we talk about some of the growth that happens underground. Like the roots growing. We are seeing moments from him but his foundation right now is growing so solid and so wide. He’s preparing himself for major major jumps. And he’s got a really terrific future. He’s got a future that’s going to be so stunning that he won’t be out of his mind excited when he bangs a three because that will become really really normal.

Q Mark, to ask you with an encore question related to Brandon, he goes perfect on two-pointers tonight and had two blocks and seems to be playing really efficiently on the offensive end. Can you speak to his growth maybe being more comfortable playing at the college level and also just any particular sets or schemes that you guys feel like have kinda unlocked what he can do for you guys on the offensive end?

MARK POPE: Yeah, we got to play probably more minutes tonight then we played all season with Brandon and Amari on the floor together which is, I don’t know, is six minutes , maybe seven minutes. But they were actually really effective and BG was really effective and explosive with his dunk game. I thought with his defensive assignment tonight. We were blitzing certain ball screens and we were down and we blitzed. In the second half, he had a blitz away from our bench on the left wing where is was really really aggressive, got in a trap and stayed a little bit too long in the trap. We got behind on the rotation and then he came from behind and made the next effort. Coach Mikhail McLean was just in his own beautiful way stressing our guys on multiple efforts through the rebound and he made a multiple effort play and came from behind and blocked a shot and it was really important for us and an important moment in the game but he is starting to understand how to string together efforts in the same play and that’s pretty exciting for us. He’s been, I don’t know what is actually numbers are tonight. But he’s 1-0 tonight. But he’s got a real flavor for passing out of all of our actions and he’s pretty disciplined about it for him to be a zero turnover guy as much as he handles the ball, is really special. He was much better with his roles tonight. Sometimes he starts floating around but he rolled hard tonight and guys found him, he was terrific.

Q Coach, can you talk on the play of Amari Williams, over the last couple games. A triple-double last game and then +32 tonight, how big is he for your team?

MARK POPE: He’s really big. At one point, with four minutes left. My staff was yelling at me, you got to get Lamont out, you got to get Jaxson out. So that leaves us with zero point guards on the floor and now it was like nope, we’ve got Amari and put the ball in his hands and let him kinda run it. Man, we’ve asked so much out of him and he just keeps delivering. I thought he was really terrific tonight. You know, he’s still an even one-to-one assist turnover ratio tonight and he comes off of a 10-3 game and you know, he didn’t shoot it as well as he did the other night but he was still really, really effective and impactful. I thought the best thing he did tonight is he rolled hard and actually caught balls. He was really aggressive going to catch balls and that’s important.

Q Mark, over here. I know people who don’t dive deep into the numbers and they look at the South Carolina record, especially in the SEC, and say well, this is a game that you should have won. But I know you talk so much about being grateful and not taking things for granted. How much does this mean just to get this back into the win column and to do it so decisively?

MARK POPE: It means a lot, this is really important to us. Every game is the biggest game we’ve ever played. But as you go through the course of the season it was important for us, it’s important in a lot of ways. You know, I woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning after sleeping for two hours and couldn’t go back to sleep because I really genuinely didn’t know if I was going to walk into the gym and have no Lamont, and no Jaxson, and no Kerr. Right? You know, that would have been a really beautiful challenge for us. This game is really important to us. One because it’s a win. And two, it got those guys on the floor, they got through the game and they are still alive and every day we can get them to where they, you know, be a little healthier is a bonus. That’s probably one of the best parts of the game but the fact we can do it with a win is really really important to us. The fact that Lamont can get on the floor. I might have teased Lamont about the first lay-up at the rim. Did you guys remember that? It was really shaky but that’s what happens when you haven’t dribbled the ball for two weeks. Right? He was terrific. He got better and better. You know, having him a couple of game reps, we know how potent he is and he’s going to learn how to do it a different way. He’s wearing a brace that is like a tank on his shoulder but it’s really nice to have him back. It was important for a whole bunch of reasons. And this South Carolina team is really good. They lost by Auburn by two and they were up five against Florida with one minute left. I mean, they have been competitive every single game and it’s a good team with really talented players and there is no easy games in this league. This is certainly not one of them and we are happy to get a win for all of those reasons. Okay, thanks guys.

#00, Otega Oweh, G

On making double digits…

“I mean I did a solid job of just sticking with it, you know it’s a 40-minute game, so, if the first half doesn’t go well, you always have the second half to bounce back, so that’s what I try and do.”

On bouncing back…

“It felt great, and the way we did it, we got better playing defense, playing better team defense, just helping the helper and having each other’s back, and that was what we worked on the whole week, I mean I’m proud of the stuff we did tonight.”

On having Lamont Butler back…

“Oh it was huge, like just his presence helps us out so much, offensively, defensively, I mean I’ve asked him every single day since he’s been out if he was playing, so I’m just glad he got to suit up today.”

On Brandon Garrison’s performance…

“Yeah, he was a huge spark off the bench, I mean it’s kind of hard for the defense to go from guarding Lamont to him, because it’s kind of two different styles but it’s the same thing kind of, but I mean when he’s hooping and he’s quick, you gotta bring the energy every game.”

#4, Koby Brea, G

On how far he has come defensively…

“I have been working a lot on my mentality and what I need to work on after the last couple of games. I am just trying to set the tone at the beginning that we are going to get better defensively and lock in on that,”

On what made the defense better today…

“I think we did a good job locking in today. We did a good job sticking to the game plan today, but at the end of the day, you must go out there and show it with a lot of effort and heart, and we did that today. On top of that, we got to have each other’s backs, and we did that today.”

On what made the tone feel different today…

“I think with the last couple of losses we realize (defensively) one person can affect the whole group. So, I think that making sure that it was not just me, as a team we all got to lock in, and I put how I play at the highest importance. Overall, it is just a mentality thing and something we like to see.”

#10, Brandon Garrison, F

On how he felt today …

“It just felt great. Keep putting in the work and you get good results out of it.”

On playing more comfortably…

“Having him trust me more when I am out on the floor with the other guys. For example, when I practice and play with the team, I love showing him I can do it. Trust grows throughout the year and taking baby steps to get better.”

On Lamont Butler coming back…

“We missed him. When we are out there, you can tell that having him back does major things for our team. Having him back allows us to have more steals a quicker response and a confidence boost. “

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And here are the UK Athletics postgame notes.

Team Records and Series Notes

• Kentucky is now 16-7 overall, 5-5 in the Southeastern Conference. South Carolina is 10-13 overall, 0-10 in the league
• Kentucky leads the series 55-15, including 30-3 in Lexington.
• Mark Pope is 203-115 as head coach, including 16-7 at Kentucky.
• Next for Kentucky: the Wildcats stay home to play host to Tennessee on Tuesday. Game time is 7 pm and it will be televised on ESPN.

Team Notes

• Kentucky limited South Carolina to 57 points and 32.8 percent shooting, the Wildcats’ best defensive marks this season in an SEC game.
• Kentucky won the rebounding 41-35. UK is 12-3 this season when winning the rebounding.
• Kentucky won bench points 39-4 and points in the paint, 44-26.

Player Notes

• Otega Oweh had a game-high 17 points, scoring 15 of those in the final 10 minutes of the game.
• He has scored in double figures in every game this season, the only SEC player to do so and one of 13 (entering today) in Division I.
• Brandon Garrison had a season-high 15 points, his fourth double-figure game of the season. He made 7 of 8 shots, with his only miss coming on a 3-point try.
• Amari Williams had 10 points and a team-high six rebounds.
• It is his 14th double-figure scoring game of the season.
• Koby Brea scored 10 points and had a career-high six assists with no turnovers. After the game, Coach Pope also credited Brea’s defensive performance.
• He made two triples. He has 17 games with multiple 3s this season and 38-straight contests overall with at least one made 3.
• After a three-game absence, Lamont Butler returned to action. He played 23 minutes and totaled eight points, three assists, one rebound and one steal.

In the First Half

• Kentucky’s starters were Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson, Otega Oweh, Ansley Almonor and Amari Williams. UK 1-1 with this starting lineup.
• Koby Brea was UK’s first substitution at 16:07.
• Both teams started cold, with Kentucky missing its first six shots and South Carolina missing six of its first eight.
• Trailing 4-2, UK made five shots in a row, capped by a Brea 3-pointer which gave the Wildcats their first lead at 13-11.
• Additional triples by Robinson and Brea completed an 11-0 run and made the count 19-11.
• Kentucky closed the half on a 12-1 run and took a 33-19 lead into the locker room.
• South Carolina’s 19 points and 23.5 shooting percentage are UK’s best defensive marks for one half this season.
• UK is now 13-0 this season when leading at halftime

In the Second Half

• Kentucky began the second half with the starters.
• A Butler assist to Williams and a Butler jumper jumpstarted the action, extending the run to 16-1 and giving UK a 37-19 lead.
• South Carolina rallied to close within 41-30, coaxing a UK timeout at 14:49.
• The Gamecocks got within nine, 50-41, with 10:39 left but an 11-0 run repulsed the advance.
• Kentucky led by as many as 26 points at 73-47.