Five things you need to know from Kentucky's 123-52 win over Kentucky Wesleyan in a men's college basketball exhibition game at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Mark Pope's UK coaching debut. For the first time since March 4, 2009, someone other than John Calipari coached a Kentucky men's basketball team at Rupp Arena.
With 1:32 remaining before the opening tipoff, Mark Pope walked out onto "Cawood's Court." Decked out in a black sweat suit with a white interlocking "UK" on the front, Pope got a large ovation from what was a good-sized crowd for a midweek exhibition game.
Perhaps the most interesting "style change" on display from the Calipari era came with how Kentucky led up to the Wildcats player introductions.
UK's NCAA championship banners were lit by spotlight and shown on the arena video screens.
The musical accompaniement to the starting lineups was "Sirius" from the Alan Parsons Project -- the music most associated with Chicago Bulls starting lineup introudctions in the Michael Jordan era.
For the trivia-minded, the Kentucky starting lineup in the first exhibition game of the Mark Pope era was Jaxson Robinson, Andrew Carr, Amari Williams, Otega Oweh and Lamont Butler.
2. The "Threes fired report." Mark Pope's final BYU team fired the second most three-point shots in NCAA Division I men's basketball last season.
The Cougars launched a robust 1,087 treys, an average of 32 3-point shots a game.
For his first Kentucky team, Pope has said an average of 35 three-point attempts a game is the goal.
That mission was accomplished Wednesday night.
Kentucky launched 42 treys. The Wildcats fired 20 three-pointers in the first half, then came back to launch 21 in half two.
Even better, UK was hitting at a high rate from behind the arc.
Last year, BYU was 135th in three-point percentage, making 34.77.
Against an overmatched NCAA Division II foe, Kentucky was much more accurate than that on treys last night.
The Cats hit a cool 50 percent -- 21-of-42.
Leading the way in the long-range artillery were Fairleigh Dickonson transfer Ansley Almonor (5-of-7 treys), BYU transfer Jaxson Robinson (5-of-9), former Harlan County star Trent Noah (4-of-5, all in the game's final 5:23), Dayton transfer Kobe Brea (3-of-5) and Oklahoma transfer Otega Oweh (2-of-2).
For a Kentucky fan base, some percentage of which has hungered for a more "modern approach" to offense, last night's outside shooting barrage had to be a sight for sore eyes.
3. "Point center." One of the unique facets of Mark Pope's (often) five-out offensive approach is that the center is responsible for much of the ball distribution.
In his first exhibition game in the Kentucky uniform, 7-foot Drexel transfer Amari Williams looked very much up to that task.
As Kentucky assisted on 32 of its 48 made field goals, Williams tied point guard Lamont Butler for the team lead in assists with six.
4. Kentucky in exhibitions. UK's win over Kentucky Wesleyan ran the Wildcats' all-time record in exhibition games to 153-12. The Cats have now won 32 exhibition games in a row.
Kentucky's most recent defeat in an exhibition came on Aug. 17, 2014, a 63-62 loss to the Dominican Republic in Nassau, Bahamas.
5. Wildcats vs. Panthers. With Wednesday night's victory, Kentucky is now 3-0 vs. Kentucky Wesleyan in exhibition games.
UK also beat KWC in exhibition play before the 2004-05 season, 79-54, and prior to the 2021-22 campaign, 95-72.
From 1910 through 1938, Kentucky and Kentucky Wesleyan played 11 times in real games, with the Wildcats holding an 8-2-1 advantage in those contests. The tie, a 21-21 deadlock, came about inadvertently on Feb. 9, 1918, when an error in the official score book was not discovered until after the game had ended.
At their respective levels, Kentucky and Kentucky Wesleyan are two of the most storied programs in men's college basketball.
UK has won eight men's NCAA Division I national championships -- 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, 1998 and 2012.
KWC has won eight men's NCAA Division II national championships -- 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1987, 1990, 1999 and 2001.
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