When Mark Pope announced that he would be taking questions directly from BBN, we all knew things could get interesting. But honestly, it turned out pretty good; you had some honest questions and some good answers. Sure, there were sarcastic questions that just were never going to be answered, but Pope did address the GM situation. While it wasn’t the answer a lot of people hoped for, at least there is now a clear hierarchy within the basketball front office. Let’s break it down.
Kentucky
Brea, Kriisa spark Cats off bench in win over Bucknell
LEXINGTON, Ky. — After No. 23 Kentucky delivered another impressive offensive performance on Saturday in a 100-72 win over Bucknell, John Griffin joined the ranks of opposing coaches who have expressed admiration for what Mark Pope has done in very short order with the Wildcats.
“Mark Pope has done an excellent job of assembling a roster of very good basketball players, very good college basketball players, and they’ve quickly — through hard work, I can only imagine — found the magic wand of unselfishness,” said the Bison head coach. “It’s impressive.”
Kentucky (2-0) topped the century mark for the second time in two games under its new head coach. The Wildcats knocked down 13 3-pointers, including six by grad senior guard Koby Brea, and dished out 23 assists on 38 made baskets, including 12 by senior point guard Kerr Kriisa.
Pope called Brea, the Dayton transfer who has opened his UK career 10-of-12 from the arc, an offensive efficiency “maestro” on the floor.
Added Griffin: “Having scouted Koby Brea before, I have not seen him miss twice in a row… he’s a professional shooter, make no mistake about it. I think they recruited him knowing he’s the best shooter in the nation from a 3-point percentage standpoint.”
As for Kriisa, who made his way to Lexington after stops at Arizona and West Virginia, Pope said he’s bringing energy to the Cats with a goal of being the nation’s top “pace guy.”
“For him to kind of bring that kind of juice and panache and skill and excitement and unselfishness and kind of magic to the floor (is a big key for UK),” Pope said.
Even more impressively, both of UK’s standouts came off the bench to spark the Cats.
“It’s been a lot of fun, especially with (Kriisa),” Brea said. “Just seeing how we’re able to come in, and the energy of the game just changes with his speed and everything. Sometimes we kinda need that.”
Kentucky also got a double-double from grad senior center Amari Williams (13 points, 14 rebounds), 14 points from grad senior wing Jaxson Robinson, 11 points from grad senior forward Andrew Carr, and 10 points from junior guard Otega Oweh.
What Pope liked even more than another offensive explosion, however, was the Cats’ attention to a point of emphasis this week in practice. UK pulled down 57 rebounds, including 22 on the offensive end of the floor leading to 19 second-chance points.
“It’s a gift as a coach to have guys that are curious and guys that are humble and guys that want to get better,” the UK boss said. “We don’t use the words curious very often and we don’t talk about humility very often. But we have a ton of that on our team.
“For these guys to respond to a challenge — we have been kind of sitting on this for maybe 10 days… we are just not getting to where we need to get on the glass — and for these guys to come up and put up almost 60 rebounds today is incredibly gratifying as a coach. It’s a really important step for us as a team.”
The Cats’ big men — Williams, Carr, Brandon Garrison, and Ansley Almonor — combined for 15 offensive rebounds.
“We had four guys that are playing the bulk of the minutes (at) the four and the five,” Pope said. “They all have three or more offensive rebounds. And that’s pretty cool. Really a tremendous effort by those guys.”
Kentucky also put in a strong effort on the defensive end of the floor, holding the Bison to 39.7% shooting from the field and turning 14 turnovers into 22 points.
Bucknell (2-1) was led by senior forward Ian Motta with 18 points. Senior guard Josh Bascoe chipped in with 15 for the Bison.
*****
In this “Rapid Recap” feature, we touch on some quick-hitters from the UK victory…
KEY MOMENT:
Bucknell hung within 14 points of the Cats at the 17:21 mark of the second half, but just over two minutes later, Kentucky was back ahead by 20 after 3-pointers by Koby Brea, Kerr Kriisa, and Jaxson Robinson. UK continued to grind the Bison down and led by as many 29 points down the stretch.
GAME BALL:
Koby Brea, Kentucky — The transfer guard has been as good as advertised after leading the nation in 3-point percentage last year at Dayton. He is now 10-of-12 (83%) from the arc in two games for the Cats. He is the second player in program history to hit at least four 3-pointers in each of his first two games at UK, joining Antonio Reeves.
BY THE NUMBERS:
3rd – Time since 1980 that Kentucky has won both of its first two games by 28 or more points. The other two were 1998-1999 and 2013-2014.
4th – Player in UK program history, Amari Williams, to have 13-plus rebounds in his first two games. He joins Dan Issel, Julius Randle, and Oscar Tshiebwe in that exclusive club.
21 – Minutes played were the fewest for a UK player who recorded 12 or more assists, Kerr Kriisa, in the last 20 seasons.
26 – Career double-doubles for Amari Williams, who has recorded one in each of his first two games as a Wildcat.
68.8% – Assist rate for UK in its first two games of the season.
1978-79 – The last time Kentucky opened the season with back-to-back games scoring more than 100 points.
QUOTABLE:
“We’re playing good basketball right now, and we’ve got a chance to grow into a great team. Now we’ve got to earn it. We’ve got to work on it every day.” — UK head coach Mark Pope
UP NEXT:
Kentucky returns to action on Tuesday night in Atlanta against No. 7 Duke in the Champions Classic. The Cats and Blue Devils (2-0) will tip off in the second game of the doubleheader following Kansas and Michigan State. The broadcast is slated for approximately 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Warm and humid weather for Preakness Stakes this weekend
The second race of the Triple Crown is May 16 in Laurel, Maryland. Conditions at Preakness Stakes are expected to be warmer with humidity. There could be a spotty thunderstorm after the race.
Golden Tempo won the Kentucky Derby. He won’t be at the Preakness. And that’s becoming a familiar story.
This marks the second straight year and the third time in five years that the Derby winner has decided not to compete in the Preakness Stakes despite having a healthy horse. The reason is almost always the same: two weeks isn’t enough time.
Trainer Cherie DeVaux made the call quickly after Golden Tempo’s dramatic last-to-first Derby victory on May 2.
“Golden gave us the race of a lifetime,” DeVaux said in a statement. “We believe the best decision for him moving forward is to give him a little more time following such a tremendous effort.”
DeVaux and Golden Tempo are focused on the June 6 Belmont Stakes instead.
The pattern is pretty clear.
From 1997 to 2018, every Kentucky Derby winner ran the Preakness, keeping the Triple Crown path intact. That streak ended with Country House, who won the Derby on the disqualification of Maximum Security, was scratched from the Preakness. The sport has been wrestling with the question ever since. Maryland’s racing leaders have considered moving the Preakness one week later, from the third Saturday in May to the fourth, though no change has been made.
Of the 14 horses entered in the Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park on May 16, just three made the trip from Churchill Downs. None of them won the Derby. One nearly caused the biggest upset in recent memory.
Ocelli (Post 2, 6-1)
The most intriguing Derby returnee. Ocelli finished third at 70-1 odds on May 2, giving trainer Whit Beckman and jockey Tyler Gaffalione a surprise ticket to Laurel Park. He was the lone maiden in the Derby field and remains a maiden heading into Saturday. Nobody expected him to be here.
Incredibolt (post 12, 5-1)
The morning-line co-favorite among Derby runners. Incredibolt finished sixth at Churchill Downs and trainer Riley Mott moved quickly to point him to Laurel Park. Jockey Jaime Torres won the 2024 Preakness aboard Seize the Grey. The connections believe the 1 3/16-mile distance suits Incredibolt better than the Derby’s mile and a quarter.
Robusta (Post 4, 30-1)
The longest shot of the Derby trio is Robusta, who finished 14th of the 14 in the Derby. The question with any horse coming back this quickly after a tough Derby is how much the race took out of him. At 30-1, it seems the market has answered that question.
COVINGTON, Ky. (WKRC) – A Northern Kentucky man is in jail, accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl who’d been reported missing.
Matthew Wade, 40, faces charges, including sexual abuse, unlawful transaction with a minor and assault.
Covington Police say they found the teen at Wade’s home on Highway Avenue on Monday. According to the police report, he was knowingly hiding her, knew she was missing and had cut her ankle monitor off.
Investigators say the teen was given alcohol, marijuana and magic mushrooms.
The girl told police wade slapped her and choked her.
Officers also say they found guns in the home.
Mark Pope has confirmed that no official GM position will exist for at least this season, and most likely won’t exist going forward. Why? Because he has the responsibilities spread out across 4 different people, and believes that is the best way forward.
“In this ever-changing college basketball dynamic, everybody is trying a different solution. For us, instead of hiring a singular GM, we’ve gone with a more comprehensive general management team approach. We have four members of the team. Keegan Brown is a data analysis and roster construction expert who’s worked in both college and the NBA. Nick Robinson is our salary cap strategy and management specialist. Kevin Sergent is our compliance officer, and he deals with all of our contracts and legal language. Kim Shelton is our JMI liaison, and she does all of our NIL contracts that deal with corporate sponsorships. That’s our four-person general management team.”
But who is each one of these people, and what makes them qualified?
Who’s doing what in the Kentucky basketball front office?
Well, Keegan Brown has been a video coordinator in the G-League. That essentially means he would go and watch all the videos on league opponents and potential prospects, and come up with data-backed scouting reports for the coaching and front office teams. Pope has worked with Brown at BYU, so there is some familiarity there.
Nick Robinson also worked with Mark Pope in Provo, being an assistant coach from 2019 to 2024 and following Pope to Lexington. He has been on staff all 3 seasons now, and is being tasked with handing out Kentucky’s money and setting a budget for each player.
Kevin Sergent is not new to Kentucky; he has been in Lexington since 2020. But this is his first time handling compliance on his own; his official title is Senior Associate AD for Athletic Compliance. He handles all the rules, applying for waivers, basically making sure the entire staff is doing everything the right way.
Kim Shelton is a UK alum who was more known for soccer than anything else. She was part of the very first Kentucky women’s soccer team and is a former CEO of Lexington Sporting Club. She worked for Kentucky when Commonwealth was renamed as Kroger Field, and played a role in setting up naming rights for Kentucky Proud Park. Right now, she is kind of the bridge between Kentucky and JMI, specifically handling BBNIL Suite.
If you don’t remember what BBNIL suite is, it’s essentially the opt-in program where student athletes agree to only work with deals through JMI. They find offers, broker deals, and help athletes make money. It is, of course, optional, but if players decline, they will not be able to use the University of Kentucky logos in their NIL marketing.
Trent Noah is probably the most successful NIL athlete who opted out. The Kentucky native is handling his own NIL, and by the amount of ads and cardboard cutouts I see littered around the state, he seems to be doing pretty well.
Seeing JMI integrated again into Kentucky Basketball is probably going to make some of you uneasy, and I get that. But everyone who has worked with them who has officially gone on the record says they are a pleasure to work with.
And that’s how Mark Pope wants it done. There is a theory out there that he wants a GM, but JMI won’t let him. Considering he has chosen 2 of the 4 people personally, I highly doubt that’s true.
What do you think of his explanation, and what do you think of how he is handling the GM role?
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