LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky entered this season expecting a climb. Instead, the Wildcats spent much of it adjusting.
Now, they know the road.
Kentucky heads into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 7 seed after an injury-plagued 21-13 season that ended with a ninth-place finish in the SEC.
The Wildcats are headed to St. Louis as the No. 7 seed in the Midwest Region, where they will face No. 10 seed Santa Clara on Friday. The winner will face the winner of No. 2 Iowa State's game against No. 15 Tennessee State, coached by former Louisville assistant Nolan Smith.
It has been an uneven road to this point for Mark Pope and a team trying to push the program to its first Elite Eight since 2019 and first Final Four since 2015.
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Ranked No. 9 in the preseason, Kentucky never really got the season it envisioned. Prized big man Jayden Quaintance appeared in only four December games and never fully returned from offseason knee surgery.
Jaland Lowe, the Pittsburgh transfer expected to provide scoring and playmaking at point guard, played only nine games before a shoulder injury shut him down in early January.
Without those two key pieces, Pope had to reshape Kentucky on the fly.
Lacking consistent perimeter shooting and a true point guard, the Wildcats became a team built more on force than finesse. They leaned on the relentless downhill attacks of All-SEC guard Otega Oweh and Florida transfer Denzel Aberdeen, while counting on the growth of young center Malachi Moreno.
Collin Chandler emerged as a dependable perimeter threat. Kam Williams, when healthy, added another option on the wing. And Alabama transfer Mo Dioubate delivered exactly what he was brought to provide: toughness, rebounding and experience.
The team Pope takes into the NCAA Tournament does not play much like the one he expected to take there.
Despite one of college basketball’s highest reported price tags, Kentucky became an improvised mix. By mid-January, the Wildcats had steadied themselves with five straight wins and eight victories in nine games.
But they lost five of their final seven regular-season games before responding with a pair of gritty wins in the SEC Tournament, then falling 71-63 to Florida.
Even in that loss, Pope said he saw a trait that could matter in March.
"It bodes well," Pope said. "If we can carry that with us, we have a chance. We'll play way better than this. We'll play so much better than this. I have no doubt.
"If we can hang on to that ability to focus for 40 minutes on just trying to find answers, we're going to make a great run."
This version of Kentucky does not spread teams out and bomb away. The Wildcats attempt just 23 3-pointers per game. Instead, they try to overwhelm opponents inside, averaging 35 paint points and 22 free-throw attempts per game while rebounding one-third of their missed shots for second-chance opportunities.
The formula is fairly clear.
Kentucky has been at its best when it dominates the glass and avoids fouling. When the Wildcats grab at least 35% of their missed shots and commit 18 fouls or fewer, they are 7-0. When they fail to do that, they are 4-9.
If Kentucky can do those things, it has enough talent to make life difficult on anyone in its path. Whether it has enough firepower to string together the kind of wins required for a sustained run remains the question.
The Wildcats own quality wins over St. John’s and Arkansas. They also suffered lopsided losses to Michigan State and Gonzaga, and too often spent the season trying to climb out of double-digit holes.
Oweh leads Kentucky at 18.2 points per game, followed by Aberdeen at 13.2 and Chandler at 9.9. Chandler is shooting 42.7% from 3-point range. Over the past 10 games, that trio has carried even more of the scoring burden, with Oweh averaging 20.7 points, Aberdeen 15.5 and Chandler 11.3.
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