Mark Pope sees next season's Kentucky team having 'great pace'

Mark Pope and the Kentucky staff wanted to check a couple of boxes this off-season, and one of those was athleticism. The staff brought in players that can get downhill, create for others, as well as having some shooters. In his press conference on Monday, Pope was asked an area that he believes the Wildcats can be great at.

With how much athleticism Kentucky will have, Pope immediately answered by talking about the pace of the team, something that really does feed off of playmaking and athleticism, which Kentucky has everywhere on the floor with next season's roster.

"I think that we have some space to find some great pace with this team, actually, for a lot of reasons. One, because we have some personnel that I think have motors. I think we have some guys with special motors. I think that we have some depth that we can really rely on that's gonna help us. We have a versatile group of bigs once they're all together that I think has the chance to be really special and attack the game in several different ways. So, I like the possibility of pace. I think we have a chance to have a really dynamic backcourt, guys that are really capable of making multiple moves to make plays in the backcourt and I think this team has a chance to really pass the ball at an elite level."

All of those things Pope mentioned plays right into having that 'great pace' that he believes the team can have. Playing fast is a huge part of his offensive system, as well as cutting and shooting. Having a playmaker like Jaland Lowe leading the charge, surrounding him with athletic scorers like Otega Oweh, Kam Williams and Denzel Aberdeen and versatile big men like Mo Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance will provide constant pace and will help find those open teammates.

Kentucky can be a very dangerous team if their pace of play is at high level next season. They have all the pieces to be elite in that area especially.