Kentucky basketball predicted to land elite 2025 seven-footer…
One of the reasons Mark Pope was such a good hire for the Kentucky Wildcats is because he is an elite offensive mind. Coach Pope’s offense preaches ball movement, cutting to the rim, everyone on the floor being able to pass, and knocking down open threes.
Coach Pope has always had an elite offense, but now he has a roster full of veteran players who will be able to run the offense to perfection.
CBS Sports listed Coach Pope as one of college basketball’s most innovative offensive coaches.
Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports, who wrote the article, had this to say about Pope’s offense, “New Kentucky coach Mark Pope is a bit of a mad scientist. The former BYU coach knew he had to be different to survive in the Big 12, so Pope unleashed an offense that shot 50.4% of its attempts from beyond the arc. It was just the third time in the KenPom era that a high-major team attempted more 3s than 2s, joining 2017-18 Washington State and 2018-19 Villanova. Having something in common with Jay Wright is a pretty good thing. Pope found something by inverting the floor with big man Aly Khalifa, who could step out and drill a 3-pointer but, most importantly, pass the rock. Kentucky should be able to emulate that a little bit with a passing big man like Amari Williams and a horde of shooters, headlined by Jaxson Robinson and Koby Brea. Kentucky hopes Pope is its version of Oats at Alabama. Oats is a champion of the “Rim & 3″ rate, something that John Calipari did not embrace during his tenure.”
No one is talking enough about Coach Pope and his 2024-25 roster but with this elite offense and the perfect roster to run it, watch out for the Kentucky Wildcats.
For Jaxson Robinson, the dream of college basketball had nightmarish beginnings.
Now, the 21-year-old guard from Ada, Oklahoma, is entering his fifth season of college, the biggest name on Mark Pope’s first Kentucky roster and — according to the expert predictions — the most likely Wildcat to be selected in the 2025 NBA draft.
But getting to this point wasn’t the smoothest process. And even those coaches that have come to appreciate Robinson the most weren’t sure if he’d ever get anywhere close to the position he’s in now.
A high school graduate at age 17, Robinson was more than ready to move on from his hometown, and he put in the academic work to make it happen as quickly as possible. That left the No. 82 recruit in the class of 2020 with a choice: spend a year in prep school or head to college a year early.
He chose the latter, enrolling at Texas A&M in the summer of 2020, which, as it turned out, wasn’t the best time to be a 17-year-old kid trying to get acclimated to high-level college basketball.
That was the summer of COVID-19 and the pandemic restrictions that kept teams from operating in a normal fashion. Getting up to speed was tough. Getting on the court was difficult. And, toward the end of the season, the Aggies rarely even made it to the gym.
