Kentucky head coach, Mark Pope, has put on a Masterclass in building a basketball roster from scratch in a very short amount of time. With a few minor misses, Pope has maximized his options around every corner and composed a team that will compete with the best next season. A few incoming Wildcats, such as Lamont Butler and Amari Williams, specialize in defense, but most everyone can score the basketball.
Seven out of Kentucky’s nine players transferring in from other colleges averaged double-figures for their previous school. And the two guys who didn’t reach the 10-point-per-game mark fell just short at 9.3 and 7.5 points per game.
If everyone matched their average from last season, Kentucky will score 106.6 points per game this year. Simple math, right?
Okay, maybe that’s not exactly how it works, but here is a look at the offensive firepower suiting up for the blue and white next season, and this doesn’t even count the team’s sharp-shooting freshmen.
Incoming Kentucky Transfers Points Per Game Last Season
Players may need to play a lesser role than they did last season
Every one of these players will be coming into a much different situation than where they were last year and sacrifices must be made with regards to playing time and the number of attempts each person will get.
After all, at Kentucky, you can be successful while shooting the 5th most shots on the team, right?
Any way you look at it, Big Blue Nation has to be encouraged by this team’s offensive potential. Combing this quality of bucket-getters with Mark Pope’s analytic-driven modern brand of basketball, this rendition of the Wildcats could very well surpass last season’s dynamic scoring team, one that averaged 89 points per game, good for second-best in the nation.
Last year’s regular season will be hard to replicate in terms of fun, but Pope has set himself up for just as much offense this year. And he still has one more scholarship to fill, if he wants it.
The post Scoring should not be a problem for Kentucky basketball next season appeared first on On3.
