Mark Story: Alabama 3-point barrage is what Kentucky thought it was getting with Mark Pope

Mark Story, Lexington Herald-Leader on Jan 3, 2026

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Down 19 with 9:12 left in the game at No. 14 Alabama, Kentucky had mounted enough of a rally to prompt a “Go Big Blue!” chant inside Coleman Coliseum.

Yet with the Wildcats within 11, 81-70, inside the game’s final TV timeout, the Crimson Tide went to their bread-and-butter.

From way, way, way behind the top of the arc, Crimson Tide guard Aden Holloway rose and swished a 3-pointer with 3:32 left that pushed Bama back in front by 14. For all intents, any Kentucky hope of a miracle comeback was over.

Which was appropriate.

On a day when No. 14 Alabama (11-3, 1-0 SEC) ran its winning streak over Kentucky (9-5, 0-1 SEC) to four straight with an 89-74 victory before a raucous Coleman Coliseum crowd of 13,474, it was the Tide’s 3-point shooting that produced the win.

In a game that Bama won by 15 points, the Crimson Tide scoring advantage from beyond the 3-point arc was 45-12.

Holloway, the 6-foot-1, 180-pound junior transfer from Auburn, led the way, draining 6 of 8 3-pointers en route to a game-high 26 points.

“Shoots the ball really well. From all over the place — 30 feet, 28 feet,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said afterward of Holloway.

For the game, Alabama finished 15 of 38 on treys, compared to Kentucky’s 4 of 19.

Nine of the 10 Crimson Tide players who played in the game attempted at least one 3-point shot, and five made at least one. Backup forward Houston Mallette supported Holloway’s sizzling 3-point shooting by going 4 of 6 on treys.

No one could blame Kentucky backers if they felt wistful watching Bama bomb away. After all, a five-out attack with shooters spread around the court was what the Big Blue Nation was expecting that Mark Pope, based on his track record as BYU coach, would bring to the Wildcats.

But after Kentucky averaged 9.5 made treys and 25.3 3-point attempts a game while going 24-12 last season in Pope’s debut campaign as head coach at his college alma mater, the UK head man appears to have prioritized things other than shooting in his roster construction for 2025-26.

UK’s SEC opener at Alabama was the Wildcats’ seventh game this season against a power conference opponent (six games) and/or Gonzaga (one). In going 2-5 in those seven contests vs. high-level competition, UK has now made 23.6% of its 3-point attempts, 38 of 161.

That’s a million miles away from Pope’s final BYU team, which made 11.1 treys a game on a whopping 1,087 3-point attempts.

As someone Tweeted at me during Saturday’s game, Pope appears to have recruited a team that doesn’t fit his signature style of play.

For the most part this season, any Wildcats improvements in defense and rebounding that have resulted from the change in recruiting emphasis have, against good teams, not been sufficient to compensate for the diminished offensive firepower Kentucky possesses.

Under Pope, UK is now 4-8 in true road games.

After winning seven of his first nine games as Kentucky head coach vs. teams ranked in the AP Top 25, the loss to No. 14 Alabama makes Pope 2-9 in UK’s 11 most-recent such games dating back to last season.

In assessing Kentucky’s start to 2025-26, Alabama’s Oats pointed out, correctly, that it is only in the past three games that the Cats have had their full roster, including expected standouts in point guard Jaland Lowe and big man Jayden Quaintance, healthy enough to play.

“Kentucky’s not what everybody was hoping over there that they would be this year, but they’ve still got a lot of talent,” Oats said, “I think they’re going to win some games. They had some injuries and are getting their chemistry back together. Fortunate for us, they’re not down with that many games under the belt with everybody available. And I don’t think their chemistry is quite where they want it right now.”

Down 50-34 at half and in danger of being embarrassed, Kentucky got spirited performances from Otega Oweh (22 points, eight rebounds and three assists) and Lowe (21 points, two assists) and at least showed some second-half fight.

As for the 3-point problems, Pope was asked what has to happen for UK to get better looks from behind the arc against quality competition. The Wildcats coach pointed to ball movement — or, more specifically, Kentucky’s lack of it.

“We’re a nine-assist team,” Pope said of UK’s performance vs. Alabama. “The ball is pretty sticky. We’re not translating practice (to the games).”

Meanwhile, Pope said Kentucky’s difficulties guarding Alabama 3-point shooters owed, in part, to “They have shooters all over, which is Alabama basketball.”

With Mark Pope, it was expected “shooters all over” would define Kentucky basketball, too.

For this season, at least, that does not seem to be in the cards

That’s why, to use a baseball term, we are going to see over the remainder of 2025-26 whether Pope can figure out a way to “get by on his secondary pitches.”

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