Seven takeaways from the first UK basketball Blue-White scrimmage of the Mark Pope era

The Blue-White Preseason Event brought the UK men’s basketball team back to Memorial Coliseum on Friday night for a different kind of experience on the court.

A replacement this year for the annual Blue-White scrimmage, this event served as an NIL fundraiser for the Wildcats’ basketball teams — both the men’s and women’s squads were represented — with the lowest-priced tickets set at $125 and proceeds going to Club Blue, the UK Athletics-affiliated NIL group.

To encourage fans to attend — and donate to the NIL cause — the event was not televised, so the only way to see the on-court activities was to show up in person. (UK did have a radio broadcast of the scrimmages.)

For new coach Mark Pope’s team, this was the final major event before the 2024-25 schedule begins with an exhibition game against Kentucky Wesleyan in Rupp Arena on Wednesday.

Here are seven takeaways from the men’s portion of Friday night’s event.

The Blue-White format

While there were plenty of new wrinkles around the reimagined Blue-White event, it was still an opportunity to see the Wildcats engage in a true scrimmage.

The two sides played two 20-minute halves, though there was a running clock for the majority of the scrimmage, which ended under Elam Ending rules. Still, the Cats competed as if this were an actual game. There was none of the highlight-reel stuff — i.e. no defense — that typically occurs in settings like this one, and there were three uniformed referees on the court.

Pope patrolled the sidelines and shouted out instructions throughout the scrimmage — he was mic’d up and audible over the Memorial Coliseum sound system — while his assistant coaches were split between the two sides.

The teams were divided like this:

Blue starters: Travis Perry, Jaxson Robinson, Koby Brea, Andrew Carr and Brandon Garrison, with Trent Noah and walk-on Grant Darbyshire off the bench.

White starters: Lamont Butler, Collin Chandler, Otega Oweh, Ansley Almonor and Amari Williams, with walk-ons Walker Horn and Zach Tow off the bench.

Tow, a late addition to the UK roster — he wasn’t officially added until Big Blue Madness — was actually the first walk-on to enter the game and looked like he’ll be a valuable practice player for the Wildcats. The 6-foot-5 college junior was a standout player for Madisonville-North Hopkins in high school.

Blue-White scrimmage stats

The Blue team won the game, 67-66, with Travis Perry ending it on a made free throw.

Andrew Carr — a 6-11 forward with 3-point range — was the statistical star of the game, tallying 25 points, seven rebounds and four assists. He also went 10-of-10 on free throws. Carr, who was 6 of 11 from the field and 3-for-4 on 3-pointers, is likely to start at the 4 for the Wildcats and showed off his offensive versatility — while also holding his own defensively — Friday night.

Other highlights on the stat sheet:

▪ Collin Chandler had 19 points and went 4-for-7 from 3-point range.

▪ Amari Williams had 15 points, six rebounds and went 7-for-11 from the field.

▪ Jaxson Robinson scored 15 points and was 4-for-9 from 3-point range.

▪ Otega Oweh went for 14 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

▪ Lamont Butler, who is expected to be UK’s starting point guard, had 11 points with seven rebounds and seven assists. He was the only Wildcat to play the entire scrimmage.

Kerr Kriisa injured

A name missing from those aforementioned lineups — point guard Kerr Kriisa, one of the most exciting offensive playmakers in the country and perhaps the most intriguing player on this Kentucky roster.

Kriisa was in attendance Friday night and went through pregame introductions before sitting with the Blue team during the scrimmage. It doesn’t sound like he’ll be sidelined long.

“We actually finished up practice a couple days ago with some heavy conditioning, and he just tweaked his hamstring,” Pope said. “It’s not even a strain. It was just a precaution tonight.”

Collin Chandler impresses

One player whose playing status has been in question for some of the offseason was one of the biggest standouts of the night.

Freshman guard Collin Chandler arrived in Lexington after spending two years overseas on a mission trip, necessitating a ramp-up process during his first several weeks on campus. Pope said recently that he also suffered a minor setback during early preseason practices, but he looked good to go in Friday’s scrimmage.

On one early transition play, Chandler got the ball near the wing and Pope immediately shouted, “Attack!” Chandler did just that, driving to the rim and drawing a foul at the basket. He got more encouragement from Pope after making that play.

The former top-40 recruit was aggressive with the ball throughout the night.

On one play, he snagged a defensive rebound and hit Otega Oweh with a length-of-the-court outlet pass for a fast-break dunk.

Toward the end of the game, he took Andrew Carr off the dribble on the wing and finished with an explosive dunk over Brandon Garrison at the rim, drawing the biggest reaction of the night from the crowd.

A short time later, he deflected a pass from Jaxson Robinson, collected the loose ball himself and went the other way for his own transition dunk.

“I thought he was terrific tonight,” Pope said. “I thought he was really aggressive. I thought he was incredibly smart. … He’s going to get better and better every single day. Imagine taking two years off without touching a basketball. You got a little rust to shake off, and so he’s an incredibly talented young man who’s a better person than he is a basketball player.

“And you guys saw tonight, he’s gonna be a big-time, big-time basketball player.”

Not shy on offense

Collin Chandler wasn’t the only aggressive Wildcat on the court.

After hearing about Pope’s fast offensive style all offseason, fans finally got a look at it Friday night, and the pace was as advertised. Very few possessions went deep into the shot clock.

In one early sequence before the under-16 timeout, Jaxson Robinson, Ansley Almonor and Andrew Carr all hit 3-pointers over a span of just 25 seconds, the two teams running back and forth and letting it fly.

If a Wildcat was open on the perimeter, the ball went up immediately. There were even several instances of players putting up 3-point attempts over defenders who gave them just a little bit of space.

“We’re a green light team,” Pope said. “We trust everybody on our team. They’re recruited for a specific reason, and we want to be really, really aggressive. And we want to do it together. We want to earn each other’s shots. That’s really important. And our guys all have a feel for that, which is going to be fun to watch it grow.”

The bigs can play this style

One of the earliest takeaways over the summer from the players new to this style of play was just how fast everything moves and how well-conditioned they’d have to be to keep up. Obviously, that makes things even more difficult for the post players.

They looked good in that regard Friday night.

Both Brandon Garrison and Amari Williams ran the court well, even finishing at the point of some fast breaks. Both bigs looked to start the break as soon as they got the ball — a key component to Pope’s fast-paced approach — and the passing skills that have been discussed this offseason were evident.

Williams — listed at 7 feet and 262 pounds — made plays on both ends of the court, and it appears that the former Drexel star’s physicality should translate just fine to SEC basketball. At the end of the first half, he attacked the rim off the dribble, breaking through the defense and finishing with an emphatic dunk just before the halftime buzzer.

Garrison — at 6-10 and 250 — has explosive athleticism and good hands. He swiped the ball from Lamont Butler on one play and made a terrific catch on an off-target pass into the post a short time later, saving the possession and hitting a layup.

UK fan experience

The nature of the event made for lots of fan interaction.

During a break in the women’s team’s portion of the night, there were two separate fan contests with Jaxson Robinson, Ansley Almonor, Trent Noah and Travis Perry on the court to help. Each of the UK players was accompanied onto the floor by a fan during pregame introductions, and several of the Wildcats were interviewed over the PA.

After the scrimmage ended, Pope and the players stayed on the court to sign autographs for several minutes. There were other giveaways and contests throughout the night.

The seating capacity for the renovated Memorial Coliseum is approximately 6,250, and the arena appeared to be a little more than half full.

Afterward, Pope thanked the fans for their support and also acknowledged the balancing act that comes with making events like this open to fans while also meeting the program’s NIL needs.

“We’re just trying to figure it out right now, and we’re grateful for everybody’s patience as we try and figure out the right way to do this,” he said. “... What makes this program special is it is accessible to everybody. That’s incredibly important to us. That is the lifeblood of what this place is, right? And at the same time, we have to be competitive in NIL, and we’re very aware of everything that is involved in that. And we’re going to continue to grow this and do it better and better and better every year.”

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