There are three things to remember from Mark Pope’s press talk before Kentucky’s first game of the season

How did Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope’s Thursday press session about Monday’s season opener against Wright State teach us something?

1. Amari Williams lives from day to day

According to Pope, UK starting centre Amari Williams is “day-to-day” after leaving the court early in Tuesday night’s practice win over Minnesota State while holding his leg.

Although Williams went back to the locker room and came back to the bench, he did not play again. Images of Williams’ injury were “really good, really positive,” according to Pope. The centre will be limited for a while. The coach said, “He won’t do anything–just make free throws today.” “And we hope he’ll be back soon, but for now we’ll err on the side of caution and urgency.”

2. This is where Pope wants to see first-hand progress

No matter how easily they beat Kentucky Wesleyan and Minnesota State in practice games, Pope told his team on Thursday that they need to improve quickly in some “super important” areas.

In what areas do you mean?

Pope said, “Right now I’m not really excited about us on the glass.” “We haven’t had the offensive presence that is very important.” No matter how we play, we need to be on the offensive board. We also may have been careless at times on the defence glass. It’s where I want to get much, much better and more sure of myself.

Pope also mentioned that there were times Tuesday where he felt his team needed to tighten up defensively.

“We talk about early help, early recover all the time. The early help is to get to the early recover,” he said. “And a lot of times we were actually dancing, recovering to the gap instead of recovering to the shooter. And so, you know, that’s really important. That’s a place where we have to grow.”

There are more areas, of course.

“There are a lot of places we’re excited to grow,” he said. “I thought our offence was a little disorganised when it came to getting to the next space.” Not only were our second lifts not very good because we were closing the gap, which is something we don’t like to do because we like it to stay open, but sometimes the gap wasn’t there at all. It was a little tired on the floor sometimes, it’s true.

3. A BIG THANK YOU TO GEORGE KARL

Kentucky started Tuesday by making only 2 of 13 shots from 3-point range, but they kept making shots. Prepare. That’s how Pope’s teams will play. That being said, Pope was asked how long it took him as a coach to get used to his team shooting 3s even when they weren’t going in.

George Karl, an NBA coach who won more than 1,110 games, was called “one of the smartest people in basketball” by Pope. “I look up to him, admire him, and have learnt so much from him.” “I played on two different teams for Coach.

” I believe he fired me twice, but Coach had this amazing ability to not pay attention to the scores. Karl cared more about how his team was playing than whether they were winning or losing. “During the second media timeout, it could be 26–11, and everyone is freaking out. But he’s like, ‘No, no, guys, we’re fine.'”

There is a good vibe in this gym. We’re really playing well. It’s like, everything we do is right. We’re carrying out. We’re going to the game. Things just haven’t gone our way, but it’ll be okay if we keep going in the same direction.

If Karl’s team was ahead 26–11, the same plan would be used.

“He’d say, ‘Okay, guys, listen up. Things aren’t going well right now. Note that this counter is not a trick. We made some really stupid shots. This is also not quite right. I thought it was great that he wasn’t looking at the scores but instead reading the energy, which is what I think the game wants us to do. Don’t be sidetracked; the game wants us to.