Mark Pope is conducting a great experiment with UK men’s basketball

In his estimable run as Kentucky football coach, Rich Brooks used to say the key to making the Wildcats competitive in the SEC was to build UK rosters “that look like the teams that we play on Saturdays.”

New Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope is testing a derivative theory of “Brooks’ Law.”

For 2024-25, Pope has constructed the Kentucky men’s basketball roster “to look like the teams that have been beating the Cats in March Madness.”

If you are reading this, the likelihood seems high that you are aware that the final four seasons of the John Calipari coaching era at Kentucky did not exactly yield a bounty of postseason success for the Wildcats.

In the final four SEC Tournaments in which Calipari coached the Cats, UK went 1-4.

Over the last four years of Calipari’s Kentucky coaching reign, the Wildcats went 1-3 in NCAA Tournament contests.

As you will see below, one need not boast the basketball IQ of Dan Hurley to spot a trend in the roster construction of the teams that have been sending UK packing in March.

Let’s review:

NCAA Tournament

▪ 2024: No. 14 seed Oakland bounced Kentucky, 80-76, from the round of 64. In doing so, the Grizzlies started a super-senior, two seniors, a junior and a sophomore.

Jack Gohlke, who came off the Oakland bench to torment Cal’s Cats by draining 10 three-pointers and scoring 32 points, was also a super-senior.

▪ 2023: Kansas State eliminated UK, 75-69, in the round of 32. The purple Wildcats started three super-seniors, a junior and a sophomore.

▪ 2022: No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s stunned Kentucky, 85-79 in overtime, in the round of 64 with a starting lineup consisting of a senior, three juniors and a freshman.

Doug Edert, who came off the Peacocks’ bench to rifle in 20 points, was also a junior.

SEC Tournament

▪ 2024: Texas A&M whipped Kentucky, 97-87, in the quarterfinals with a starting lineup made up of two super-seniors, two juniors and a sophomore.

▪ 2023: Vanderbilt conquered UK, 80-73, in the quarterfinals behind a starting five consisting of three seniors, a junior and a freshman.

▪ 2022: Tennessee tamed the Wildcats, 69-62, in the semifinals with three sophomores and two freshmen in its starting lineup.

▪ 2021: Mississippi State took out Kentucky, 74-73, in the second round with a lineup consisting of a senior, three sophomores and a freshman.

The prevailing tournament trend over Calipari’s final years was stark: With the exceptions of Mississippi State and Tennessee in the 2021 and 2022 SEC tourneys, respectively, the teams booting Kentucky from postseason play were stocked with grizzled college hoops veterans.

That is why it is intriguing that the roster that Pope put together on the fly after Calipari self-exiled himself to “Hogs-ville” — and left UK with no returning scholarship players — looks so much like the teams that have been bouncing Kentucky from March Madness.

In Koby Brea, Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr, Kerr Kriisa, Jaxson Robinson and Amari Williams, UK will have six super-seniors — players using the NCAA-granted “free COVID year” for a fifth season of playing eligibility — on its 2024-25 roster.

For the coming season, Kentucky will boast nine players who have made at least 21 career starts in college hoops.

Let’s stipulate that, by itself, experience guarantees nothing. The most-experienced Kentucky team of the Calipari era was the 2021-22 team which entered that season with 367 total career starts on its roster — and lost to Saint Peter’s in the NCAA tourney.

The goal in roster construction for a UK head man in the third decade of the 21st century is to figure out the sweet spot between high-end talent and college hoops experience.

Calipari flew high early in his Kentucky tenure by going all in on one-and-done freshmen. However, once Duke and Mike Krzyzewski also went full bore into the elite freshmen talent pool, Calipari lost the competitive edge he had enjoyed in that market.

The subsequent adoption of unrestricted transfer rules and the “free COVID year” by the NCAA also seemed to lessen the effectiveness of hyper-youthful college hoops rosters.

In building such a veteran-laden team for his first Kentucky season, Pope has done more than ensure the Cats roster will mirror the teams that have been knocking UK out of tournaments.

Pope’s first roster will also look more like the teams that have been going to the Final Four in recent seasons.

Of the 20 players who started in the 2024 Final Four, 13 of them were seniors or super-seniors. Over the past two Final Fours, 31 of the 40 combined starters had been in college for at least three years. For the previous four Final Fours, that number is 60 players with at least three years in college out of 80 starters.

Among the many things to look forward to in the 2024-25 Kentucky basketball season, we will see if “Pope’s Derivative” of “Brooks’ Law” can get the Wildcats back to winning in March Madness.

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