Mark Pope said he wanted to fix Kentucky basketball’s identity. After last year’s defense was shredded repeatedly, he vowed to build a roster that could guard: long, athletic, switchable, and tough. The kinds of teams that gave Kentucky fits last year.
He went out and got those players: Mo Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance. He kept Brandon Garrison, Otega Oweh, and others built to defend. He has made it an emphasis that the defense should be elite, aiming to finish in the top 10 of Ken Pom's analytics world. His goal is lofty, his talk is more so:
"We are getting a stop every single time down the floor, that would be actually a really fun team to coach.