Mark Pope explains how to tell when Kentucky's offense is at its highest level

Kentucky basketball has had a lot of success offensively this season, with shooting being one of the major identities of the team. The Wildcats, in fact, are very efficient there, ranking first in the SEC in three-point percentage, which also ranks 21st in college basketball. It isn't the efficiency that is Mark Pope begging. It's the volume of threes. Especially in SEC play, Kentucky has yet to put together a consistent stretch of putting up a lot of threes each game, it has varied.

That's something that Pope is trying to get to his players about. He has preached about volume of threes all season, and although the Wildcats have been efficient for the most part, he says they aren't shooting it enough from deep. Pope is actually using that as a gauge of Kentucky's offensive success, saying you'll know when the offense is at its highest level because they willl have put up over 30 threes consistently in a game, while also doing it efficiently.

You'll know when we're functioning at our highest level offensively when we're earning 30 plus threes. We haven't had a tremendous amount of success consistently being there this year, but we still have the most important part of the season left, and we would love to occupy that space. My hope is that we'll get some more up.
Pope on Kentucky's offensive ceiling.

With threes being such an identity of a fast-paced Mark Pope offense, it's no secret why he has stressed a high volume of threes every game. With how well Kentucky's offense can create space for those shots, you have to wonder if a complete game from three-point range is coming soon. The Wildcats are shooting 37.9% from deep, but are only putting up 26.4 attempts per game, while Pope wants at least 30 attempts. Getting Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson back too will certainly help with pace and spacing to make that happen.

We'll see if they can put together these types of games in a consistent stretch as we get ready to head into March.