Kentucky Wildcats News: UK Basketball’s Defensive Potential

· Yahoo Sports

One of the biggest preseason concerns with this Kentucky Basketball team was on the defensive side.

We knew this team had players who could score on offense, but there were questions about how this team would fare on the other side of the ball.

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It’s obviously still very early, but through three exhibitions and the first regular season game, that perceived weakness on defense has yet to show itself.

The Cats have defended pretty well on the perimeter through the exhibition slate, and have done a good job of forcing turnovers defensively. In Tuesday night’s season-opening win over Manhattan, Kentucky finished with 9 steals and 4 blocked shots.

That speaks to what Mark Pope has been saying about this team’s length. Pope has stressed that this team’s length will be their strength defensively.

“When we put this team together, we knew we would have to lean into our length,” Pope said following Kentucky’s victory over Manhattan. “Length is our strength; we say that every day. You have to meet a threshold for length to be your strength.  Your feet have to be good enough and your intensity has to be good enough and the length can have some play…”

This Kentucky team likely will not be a team that locks its opponents down defensively night in and night out, but if the Cats can continue to be disruptive and cause turnovers, and convert those turnovers into points on the other end, it will bode well for Pope’s squad.

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