College basketball final: Kentucky 103, Wright State 62

The Mark Pope era of Kentucky basketball officially begins Monday when the Wildcats take on Wright State at 7 p.m. at Rupp Arena. ESPNU has the television coverage.

Ben Roberts, Cameron Drummond, Mark Story, Ryan Hermens and yours truly will be on hand to provide updates and analysis. You can follow us on X/Twitter at @BenRobertsHL, @camdrummond97, @markcstory, @ryanhermens and @johnclayiv.

You can also follow a dedicated X/Twitter feed on Kentucky men’s basketball by clicking here.

Kentucky men’s basketball roster

Wright State men’s basketball roster

Final: Kentucky 103, Wright State 62

▪ Final box

▪ Huge cheers when Mark Pope told Trent Noah and Travis Perry to go into the game at the 3:30 TV timeout and Kentucky up 97-57.

▪ Kentucky 7-of-10 from 3 in second half with 8:36 left and up 85-45.

▪ Cats lead Wright State 71-33 with 11:52, at which point Amari Williams had 11 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.

▪ Points in paint at 15:37 mark: Kentucky 32, Wright State 10.

▪ Crowd erupted as Andrew Carr hit a 3 to give Cats a 58-28 lead with 17:00 left.

Halftime: Kentucky 46-24

▪ Kentucky was led by five players with eight points each. They were Otega Oweh, Andrew Carr, Jaxson Robinson, Amari Williams and Koby Brea.

▪ UK shot 58.1% the first half. Wright State shot 27.8%.

▪ Kentucky was 4-of-9 from 3-point range. Wright State was 3-of-17 from 3.

▪ Amari Williams had 8 points and 9 rebounds in the first half.

▪ First half box

▪ Kentucky with five steals and a 40-22 lead with 3:13 left in the half.

▪ Mark Pope was not happy with his team’s rebounding in the exhibition win over Minnesota State last week. Cats had a 15-10 edge on the boards on Wright State with 7:19 left in the first half. UK up 29-16.

▪ At 10:23 TV timeout, Kentucky lead 25-11. Visiting Raiders were 4-of-19 from the floor for 21.1%. Cats were 10-of-16 for 62.5%. UK was 3-of-6 from 3.

▪ Good start to the Mark Pope era. Kentucky 6-of-9 from the field on the way to a 15-8 lead over Wright State at 1H 14:44 TV time. Cats have five assists on six made field goals.

▪ Pope is wearing a coat and tie for his opener.

Kentucky-Wright State pregame notes

▪ Kentucky’s starters: Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson, Amari Williams, Otega Oweh and Andrew Carr.

▪ Before the starting lineups were announced, Rupp held a moment of silence for late South Florida basketball coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, who died last week.

▪ Injured in UK’s last exhibition game, center Amari Williams is out on the floor and warming up with the Cats. On his pregame show, UK coach Mark Pope said that Williams will play against Wright State. In fact, Williams is in the starting lineup.

▪ New Kentucky coach Mark Pope is 1-1 in coaching debuts. As the new head coach at Utah Valley, he lost 85-54 to BYU in 2015. As the new head coach at BYU, he beat CS Fullerton 76-58 in 2019.

▪ UK won its two exhibition games by 103-52 over Kentucky Wesleyan and 98-67 over Minnesota State.

▪ Kentucky shot 63.2% vs. KWC and 53.6% vs. Minnesota State.

▪ Kentucky was 21-of-42 from 3-point range vs. KWC and 13-of-37 from three vs. Minnesota State.

▪ Jaxson Robinson scored 24 points in the win over Minnesota State. Robinson was 8-of-13 from the floor, including 8-of-12 from 3-point land.

▪ Kerr Kriisa had six assists in 16 minutes vs. Minnesota State.

▪ Wright State’s head coach Clint Sargent is also making his debut.

▪ After going 18-14 last season, Wright State was picked to finish fifth in the Horizon League this year.

▪ Horizon League winner Oakland beat Kentucky in NCAA Tournament last year.

▪ A 6-foot-8 junior forward, Brandon Noel is the preseason Horizon League Player of the Year. Averaged 14.5 points and 8.0 rebounds last year as redshirt sophomore. Noel was the 2023 Horizon League Freshman of the Year.

▪ A 6-3 guard, Wright State’s Alex Huibregtse averaged 12.3 points last season. He shot 41.7% from 3-point range.

▪ Wright State beat Wilmington 108-59 in its exhibition game. Logan Woods and Ayden Davis each scored 13 points for the winner. Michael Imagiagle grabbed 10 rebounds.

Where to watch, how to follow the UK men’s basketball season opener vs. Wright State

National experts give us their predictions on how Pope’s first season at Kentucky will end

A bunch of former Kentucky basketball players are still in college. Where are they now?

John Calipari made UK elite in his first season. Mark Pope will have a tougher time of it.

‘Checks off a few more boxes.’ Mark Pope continues recruiting run with third 2025 commit.