By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Kentucky coach Mark Pope is all about 3-pointers but is concerned about his team’s lack of production behind the arc during the past few weeks.
“I’m frustrated that we’re not shooting more threes,” Pope said. “It just eats at my heart. I’m like, man, we should be shooting the ball more. We’re working on that. We’re working on that and we’re going to get there.”
After making 11 treys in a win over Louisville on Dec. 14, the 10th-ranked Wildcats made just four in a win in an 85-65 loss to Ohio State last weekend at Madison Square Garden. It’s a sure thing that Pope and his squad will be shooting a lot of threes the remainder of the calendar year.
Kentucky (10-2) returned to practice from a Christmas break on Thursday before taking on Brown in a New Year’s Eve contest set for 2 p.m. Tuesday. The Browns dropped an 87-53 setback at No. 8 Kansas last Sunday in Lawrence.
Defensive issues
While long-range shooting is an issue at the moment, Pope also is worried about the team’s slide on defense after the Buckeyes shot a blistering 56 percent from the field, including 68 percent of their attempts inside the arc last weekend.
“Defensively, we gave up 15 points on rejects alone,” he recalled. “It’s just so uncharacteristic for us, just going away from where we’re leading the ball screen, right? I had made a huge emphasis about pushing our bigs up to try and get a little bit more of a presence at the point of the screen.
“When you let teams reject, it’s the worst thing to do, to push up the bigs. Out of seven possessions, it was 15 points — all twos and an and-one, a perfect field-goal percentage. There was a lot we didn’t do well. A lot of things that are going to help us get better, and get better faster.
“We just have to come up with the right answers in the right amount of time.”
Kentucky’s goal on the defensive end is to limit the opposition to under 39 percent shooting from the floor. Kentucky held its first six opponents under that figure in the first six games, but five of the last six teams have connected on more than 39 percent of their field goal attempts.
Steady Oweh
Otega Oweh has developed a knack for scoring for the Wildcats this season and is averaging 16.2 points per game and has made big plays at numerous times this year.
Oweh’s success, Pope said, is because of the guard’s ability to stay “in the moment” at all times.
“I think he’s got a pretty great capacity of just being dialed into the moment and not spending a lot of time worried about the consequences or what might happen or what just did happen,” Pope said. “He’s pretty good at being present.”
Prior to the Christmas break, Pope said Oweh’s commitment to staying in the present extends beyond the court.
“Our guys have made a renewed commitment to be present in class every day,” Pope said. “They have an early morning class where he’s getting better and better at being present.(Recently) it was all hands on deck, making sure he was there.
“Two minutes after class, we got a video from him of him sitting in an empty classroom because class was canceled and we didn’t know about it. He is the epitome of present.”
Oweh scored 21 points and made 13-13 free throws in Kentucky’s 20-point loss to Ohio State.
“He’s present,” Pope said. “He’s really bright. He’s present in class, he’s present on the court, and he is present in the closing minutes.”
NEXT GAME: Brown at Kentucky, 2 p.m., Tuesday. TV/Radio: ESPNU, UK Radio Network.