Yahoo Sports Seven things you need to know from UK’s dominating 103-62 win over Wright State
Seven things you need to know from Kentucky’s 103-62 win over Wright State in the 2024-25 men’s college basketball season opener at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Mark Pope’s triumphant first game. At exactly 6:53 p.m. (EST), Mark Pope strode onto “Cawood’s Court” dressed in a dark suit to coach the Kentucky Wildcats in a game that counts in the record books for the first time.
Greeted by a large, energetic Rupp Arena crowd, Pope’s appearance brought a big ovation — and the new UK head man drew an even louder roar when he was introduced as the Kentucky coach at the end of pregame starting lineups.
Monday night was the first time anyone other than John Calipari had coached a Kentucky men’s hoops squad at Rupp Arena in a real game since March 4, 2009, when the Wildcats lost 90-85 to Georgia in what turned out to be the final time Billy Gillispie coached the Cats at Rupp.
With UK’s victory, Pope became the ninth straight Wildcats men’s basketball coach to win in his debut.
The last Kentucky head man to lose his first contest was Basil Hayden in 1926-27, a 48-10 blowout loss to Cincinnati on Dec. 18, 1926, at Alumni Gymnasium.
The first games for all nine UK coaches since Hayden:
1927-28: John Mauer — Kentucky 33, Clemson 17.
1930-31: Adolph Rupp — Kentucky 67, Georgetown College 19.
1972-73: Joe B. Hall — Kentucky 75, Michigan State 66-*.
1985-86: Eddie Sutton — Kentucky 89, Chaminade 57-*.
1989-90: Rick Pitino — Kentucky 76, Ohio 73.
1997-98: Tubby Smith — Kentucky 88, Morehead State 49.
2007-08: Billy Gillispie — Kentucky 67, Central Arkansas 40.
2009-10: John Calipari — Kentucky 75, Morehead State 59.
2024-25: Mark Pope — Kentucky 103, Wright State 62.
*-Road game.
2. Counting the 3-pointers. Last season, Pope’s BYU team finished second in NCAA Division I men’s basketball in 3-point shot attempts a game, averaging 32 per contest (1,087 treys fired in 34 games).
The Cougars were 135th in 3-point percentage, making 34.77 on the season.
In its two exhibition wins, Kentucky made 50% of its trey tries, 21-for-42, vs. Kentucky Wesleyan and 35.1 %, 13-for-37, against Minnesota State.
In UK’s first “real game” of the Pope coaching era, the Cats “only” shot 24 treys, making 11.
Leading the way were Dayton transfer Kobe Brea, who was 4-of-4 on 3-point tries, and Oklahoma transfer Otega Oweh, who sank 3-of-3.
3. Unselfish Cats. Kentucky assisted on 30 of its 39 made field goals.
Leading the dime count were point guards Lamont Butler and Kerr Kriisa and backup center Brandon Garrison, all with five apiece, followed by Andrew Carr, Jaxson Robinson and Amari Williams with three each.
4. Busy stat lines. Former San Diego State point guard Lamont Butler filled up the box score for Kentucky to the count of 14 points, five rebounds, five assists, three steals and a blocked shot.
Also putting up a big all-around stat line was ex-Drexel big man Amari Williams. The 7-foot Englishman had 12 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, a block, a steal — and four turnovers.
5. On the Horizon. Interestingly, Kentucky opened the Mark Pope coaching era against a team from the same conference, the Horizon League, as was the team that essentially ended the John Calipari coaching era in last season’s NCAA Tournament.
Both Wright State and Oakland, which beat UK 80-76 in last season’s NCAA round of 64, play in the Horizon League.
Last season, Oakland won the Horizon League, going 24-12 overall, 15-5 in the conference. Wright State finished in a tie for third with records of 18-14 overall, 13-7 in the league.
Kentucky is now 5-0 all-time vs. Wright State and 18-2 against the teams currently in the Horizon League.
6. Kentucky in season openers. With the victory over Wright State, UK is now 101-21 all-time in season openers.
The Wildcats moved to 106-16 in home openers.
In its first game of a season at Rupp Arena, Kentucky is now 45-4.
7. The all-time wins race. One of the “assignments” facing Mark Pope in his initial season is trying to keep Kentucky No. 1 in the all-time men’s NCAA Division I college basketball wins battle.
UK entered the 2024-25 season with a five-win advantage over Kansas — 2,398 to 2,393.
Kansas passed Kentucky for the most all-time wins in men’s college hoops history during the 2022 NCAA Tournament and ended the 2021-22 season four games up (2,357 to 2,353) on UK.
In 2022-23, the Jayhawks added six wins to their advantage over Kentucky and led the all-time wins race 2,385-2,375 at year’s end.
However, prior to last season, the NCAA ordered KU to vacate 15 victories from the 2017-18 season after a Jayhawks player was retroactively found to be ineligible.
Those vacated wins returned the all-time wins lead to Kentucky by five entering last season — in which both UK and KU won 23 games.
One of the challenges for Pope in his first season on the job is preventing Kentucky from being passed again by Kansas.
Bill Self’s Jayhawks opened their 2024-25 campaign against Howard in a game that tipped off Monday at 8 p.m. (EST).
Kentucky can’t be stopped in game one of Pope era. Cats beat Wright State by 41 points.
Box score from Kentucky basketball’s 103-62 season-opening win over Wright State
