Kentucky basketball, Mark Pope must address these things this offseason

ST. LOUIS — Kentucky basketball’s second season under Mark Pope is over.

From the outside, the Wildcats underachieved. They started the preseason No. 9 in both major polls, armed with what was presumed as one of the most expensive rosters in the sport.

And, fresh off a Sweet 16 apperance in Pope’s debut season, there was an expectation UK would make it at least one step — ideally, in fans’ minds, two or more steps — further in the NCAA Tournament.

That didn’t happen: Kentucky, the 7-seed in the Midwest Region, didn’t even advance out of the opening weekend, falling in lopsided fashion, 82-63, to No. 2 seed Iowa State in Sunday’s second round at the Enterprise Center.

With the loss, the Wildcats end 2025-26 with an overall record of 22-14. The 14 defeats are tied for second most (along with 1989-90 and 2008-09) in a single season since Rick Pitino took over in 1989, trailing only the 9-16 campaign of 2020-21.

Looking ahead to 2026-27, here are three items on Pope’s offseason to-do list that should help ensure his third year is better than his second:

Mark Pope’s thoughts on tabbing a general manager for his program have varied. At his introductory news conference in April 2024, he was open to the possibility.

“Building a staff now, you are not looking just for the skill sets for just recruiting, but considering GM positions that navigate a roster,” Pope said.

Nearly two years later, Kentucky doesn’t have a GM. While Pope hasn’t outright stated he doesn’t want one, he’s often evasive when asked for on-the-record comments. Last month, he said it was “an ongoing conversation.” One that he discusses “on a weekly basis.”

Though it’s not a full-fledged GM position, nor does it have that title, the program recently posted an opening on the university’s jobs website. The role, which was called “Associate Director, Player Development,” is one Pope said will assist in evaluating which players are — and aren’t — part of UK’s basketball program going forward.

“It’s a back-office position, somebody that can model for us 24/7, that can do salary cap models, that can do win-share models, that can do comparison research in terms of us trying to get as deep into the details of managing this spring’s roster construction as we can,” Pope said March 10. “It’s really important to have somebody that, literally 24 hours a day, seven days, is just war gaming and modeling over and over and over again.”

On3’s Joe Tipton reported Pope already had a man in mind for the job: Keegan Brown, who once worked for the coach during his BYU tenure.

Whatever the title, and whoever ultimately comes aboard to help with the ever-fluid nature of player retention (and acquisition) in modern day college athletics, this past season proves Pope needs to harness the resources at his disposal to add to his front office.

To say Kentucky’s point guards have struggled to avoid injuries during Pope’s tenure is like opining Mount Everest is a small hill.

In his first season, backup point guard Kerr Kriisa played in just nine games before suffering a foot injury in December. He never suited up for UK again and transferred to Cincinnerati. LamontButler, the starter, toughed his way through 27 games, but an ankle injury sidelined him for two contests in December 2024 and he then missed seven more games with a shoulder injury. When Butler played, he wore a bulky brace on his shoulder.

Kentucky appeared it might be in better shape at the point entering this season. Eleven months ago, at least. The Wildcats already had a commitment from four-star recruit AcadenLewis. Then Jaland Lowe, who had starred at Pittsburgh for two seasons, cast his lot with UK as a transfer.

Less than a week later, Lewis was gone. He decommitted, eventually signing with Villanova.

One might think, given Kentucky’s lack of depth at the spot the previous season, Pope and Co. would do everything in their power to find a player to plug into the rotation to spell Lowe.

Didn’t happen.

Instead of adding another PG, Pope professed his confidence in other members of his backcourt — none true points, mind you — to fill in as needed. It was a quartet consisting of Denzel Aberdeen, Collin Chandler, Jasper Johnson and Otega Oweh.

No problem, as long as Lowe wasn’t bitten by the injury bug.

So, of course, Lowe injured his shoulder in the Blue-White intrasquad scrimmage in October. He played in nine games, making two starts, before undergoing season-ending surgery in January.

Aberdeen, to his credit, did his best after becoming Lowe’s primary replacement. Expected to play mostly off the ball, Aberdeen has taken on the responsibility of shot creator, averaging 3.4 assists per game. Still, given that Lowe dished out 5.5 per game in his final season at Pitt, one easily could have predicted he’d up that figure with more weapons available at UK.

Projecting into next season, Lowe said he plans to return.

Pope can’t make the same mistake twice.

If the Wildcats head into the 2026-27 campaign with only one true point guard on the roster?

They might as well have none.

The 2024-25 Wildcats were a stellar group offensively. Not only did they put up points in bunches, but they were deadly from deep. Still, that club was far from a force defensively. Though it showcased progress in that area as the season went on, no observer would have called it a strength.

It is with that in mind that Pope promised the 2025-26 version would be more menacing defensively. And more rugged overall. (Adding Alabama’s Mouhamed Dioubate from the transfer portal was supposed to address both those areas of concern.) Further, in matchups against high-flying foes in 2024-25, UK’s lack of athleticism relative to its competition was evident. (Landing Aberdeen, Jayden Quaintance and Kam Williams as transfers and signing Johnson, a highly touted recruit, was expected to alleviate those issues.)

Aberdeen routinely displayed his ability to beat defenders off the dribble and get to the rim, while Williams had flashes when healthy. Quaintance only appeared in four games for the Cats as he recovered from an ACL injury that ended his 2024-25 season at Arizona State. Johnson simply didn’t earn enough minutes to make his mark. Even when the freshman was on the floor, Johnson often was more content to launch 3-pointers instead of putting the ball on the deck and driving into the lane. (More than 60% of his shot attempts, 91 of 150, were beyond the arc.)

Ironically, it’s long-range shooting that lingered as one of Kentucky’s biggest issues in 2025-26. The Wildcats ended the season barely inside the top 200 nationally in 3-point percentage, sitting at 34.1% entering Friday. Compare that to 2024-25, when they led the SEC at 37.5%.

That team had a plethora of sharpshooters, from Koby Brea and Jaxson Robinson to Ansley Almonor and Chandler. Butler didn’t arrive from San Diego State with that reputation, yet he was UK’s third-most accurate shooter (39.1%) during his one-season stint in Lexington. That’s not even mentioning freshmen (and Kentucky high school superstars) Trent Noah and Travis Perry, who both contributed in that area, while senior forward Andrew Carr exhibited potential during the team’s pro day that never came to fruition because of a back injury that hampered him for the second half of the season.

Six players on the 2024-25 squad shot 35% or better from distance: Brea, Almonor, Butler, Robinson Oweh and Chandler.

That’s twice as many as this past season, when only Chandler, Aberdeen and Williams reached that figure.

It brings to mind Pope’s pledge upon taking the helm at his alma mater: His Wildcats would be aggressiveoffensively, predicated on top-flight 3-point shooting — his bread and butter at BYU — and hoisting 30 (or more) attempts per game.

Spreading the floor with multiple knockdown shooters is when Pope’s teams are at their best.

That’s why the 2026-27 roster needs to more closely resemble Pope’s first team, not his second.