Can Kentucky Basketball Overcome These 3 Critical Challenges to Thrive in Year 2 Under Mark Pope?

As the 2024-25 Kentucky basketball season wrapped up, it was clear the Wildcats delivered a solid campaign by pretty much any standard. Clocking in over 20 wins, knocking off eight top-15 opponents, and sweeping their fiercest conference rival in back-to-back showdowns – plus clinching a spot in the Sweet 16 – sounds like a successful run . Yet, for a powerhouse like Kentucky, expectations stretch higher than most. This program isn’t just any team; it’s the kingpin of college basketball, boasting the richest history of wins and a trophy case packed with national and SEC titles. Even before tipoff last season, Mark Pope knew the bar was set sky-high – a challenge that demands every win to inch close to Kentucky’s storied tradition. But here’s the kicker: despite a promising first year for Pope that ended the Wildcats’ six-year hiatus from the tournament’s second weekend, settling for the Sweet 16 just won’t cut it this time around. With a roster that should turn heads nationwide, Kentucky is hungry to break through to the Final Four for the first time since 2015. So, the pressing question remains—what will it take for them to reclaim a spot among college basketball’s elite? LEARN MORE.

To become a national title contender, Kentucky must improve a defense that ranked 51st nationally in adjusted efficiency last season.
The Wildcats also need to be more effective at offensive rebounding to create more scoring opportunities.
Guard Otega Oweh will face increased pressure as the team’s top returning scorer and senior leader.

LEXINGTON — At countless programs across the country, the season Kentucky basketball had in 2024-25 would be considered an outstanding effort.

More than 20 wins. Eight victories versus opponents ranked in the top 15 of The Associated Press poll at the time of the game. Sweeping the home-and-home series against the biggest rival in your conference. And a spot in the Sweet 16.

Everyone knows, of course, the Wildcats aren’t just any program. They’re the winningest school in college basketball history. There are national titles and SEC championships galore.

Yet even before he embarked on his first season as UK’s coach, Mark Pope acknowledged the outsized expectations of the fan base.

“Well, if we win every game, then we’ll be right there close to the standard,” Pope told The Courier Journal last year. “If we can win every game, we would almost reach the standard that makes Kentucky so beautiful, right?”

Obviously, the Wildcats didn’t go undefeated. (For the record, they lost 12 times in 36 contests.) But chief among Pope’s first-year accomplishments was helping Kentucky reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years.

A Sweet 16 appearance won’t cut it for UK this season, though. Not with the roster the Wildcats assembled, which should be among the best in the league — and by extension, the country.

Kentucky’s last trip to the Final Four was 2015.

Since the Big Dance’s inception in 1939, UK’s longest Final Four drought was 13 years (1998 with Tubby Smith, 2011 with John Calipari). The Wildcats are starved to return to the sport’s grandest stage.

Here are three questions they must answer during the 2025-26 season to punch their tickets to the Final Four for the 18th time:

Tennessee's Chaz Lanier (2) with the 3-point attempt while guarded by Kentucky's Collin Chandler (5) during an NCAA college basketball game on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn.

“Defense wins championships” is more commonly attributed to football. Cliché as it may be, it’s proven to be true in college basketball for more than 20 years.

Going all the way back to 2002, just one national champion finished outside the top 20 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency. The lone exception was Baylor in 2021. And the Bears barely missed the mark, as they tied for 21st that season.

Reigning national champion Florida ended the 2024-25 campaign sixth in adjusted defensive efficiency.

Where was Kentucky, you ask?

Tied for 51st.

Which was far better than UK ranked for much of last season. As the season went on, Kentucky improved defensively, bit by bit. Still not enough to make reservations for the Final Four. Much less the national championship.

If the Wildcats don’t show marked progress defensively this season, they won’t win the national title.

Two decades worth of data attest to it.

Kentucky Wildcats forward Brandon Garrison (10) grabs the rebound during the Kentucky Blue-White preseason event on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024 at the Memorial Coliseum.

A primary objective for Kentucky last season, one oft stated by Pope, was recording an offensive rebounding percentage north of 30.

UK didn’t do that often enough in 2024-25.

Per KenPom, the Wildcats had 12 games in which they had an offensive rebounding rate above 30%. They had two more games where they ended at 30% on the dot. That means UK had 22 sub-30% efforts.

So it should be no surprise that Kentucky was well outside the top 200 in that category. Only three SEC teams (Arkansas, Oklahoma and Ole Miss) fared worse.

Pope’s emphasis on crashing the boards offensively isn’t complicated. For a coach, and staff, that aim to hoist at least 30 3-pointers per game — it averaged 25.3 attempts per outing last season — collecting offensive rebounds is crucial. The more offensive rebounds a team grabs, the more shot opportunities it has at its disposal.

If the Wildcats inch closer to the 30% offensive rebounding threshold Pope seeks, he’ll likely be rewarded by seeing his squad attain his goal of 30 triples attempted nightly.

Kentucky Wildcats guard Otega Oweh (00) gestures during the second half against the Troy Trojans at Fiserv Forum.

Otega Oweh was relatively unknown prior to last season.

Everyone knows his name now.

That’s what happens when you become Kentucky basketball’s most dependable scorer night in and night out. (Nailing a pair of game-winning shots against his former team, Oklahoma, didn’t hurt his profile, either.) Because he’s the most notable returnee for the Wildcats this season, Oweh will be a marked man.

There’s a difference between flying under the radar (as he did at the beginning of the 2024-25 campaign) and being the player opposing teams make the focus of their defensive game plan. Of being the player at the top of every foe’s scouting report.

It’s a near certainty Oweh will be a preseason All-SEC first-team selection. He may even be the pick for the league’s preseason Player of the Year.

Aside from the attention he’ll command from opponents, though, there are also expectations Oweh must live up to within the program.

Last season, Oweh was a junior on a team with seven seniors. Now, Oweh is one of just two scholarship seniors (along with fellow guard Denzel Aberdeen). But Aberdeen is a transfer. Given all Oweh achieved last season, and entering his second year under Pope, he’s the one all teammates will look to on the court. And off. To lead by example. And, when needed, with his voice.

Pressure? Sure. That’s what he signed up for when he joined Kentucky.

Much as he did during the two tight tussles with OU, however, it’s a good bet Oweh will rise to the occasion.

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.