Decisions, Decisions

(LEXINGTON, Ky.) — I had a really good question for Mark Pope at Kentucky Basketball Media Day on Monday.

At least I thought it was good. You’ll have to take my word for it because I never got to ask it.

That’s one of the occupational hazards of covering Kentucky basketball. You show up early, stake out a seat, scarf down a free sandwich, and start scribbling down several questions for the man behind the podium. You then spend the next half hour holding your hand in the air like an overly enthusiastic third grader who knows the capital of Nebraska.

No problem. I’m not bitter.

Well, maybe just a little.

Besides, Media Day is the ceremonial beginning of that wonderful time of year when optimism remains undefeated, everybody has improved over the summer, every newcomer is exactly what the roster needed, and nobody has missed a shot that matters. Kentucky is long. Kentucky is athletic. Kentucky can shoot. Kentucky has depth.

And, according to Pope, Kentucky can think.

That last part caught my attention.

“I’m a decision-maker’s coach,” Pope said while explaining his offensive philosophy.

Pope explained that some coaches make decisions for their players and teach them to execute those predetermined decisions. That’s not the basketball he wants to play. He wants to teach his players to make the decisions themselves.

This struck me as either wonderfully liberating or absolutely terrifying, depending upon whether the player making the decision has just made three good ones in a row or thrown the ball six rows into the stands.

Pope believes this roster is particularly suited for it. He talked about recruiting players with “processing speed,” guys who can recognize what’s happening on the floor and react before everybody else figures it out. Malachi Moreno, for example, began a recent scrimmage with three assists in the first four minutes. Pope wants his five-man creating offense. He has guards who can create, shooters surrounding them, and players who, at least so far, appear willing to move without the basketball while making lots of hard cuts.

It all sounds wonderful in September, of course. Check back with me in February after Kentucky has lost four straight, gone six minutes without a field goal at Auburn, and somebody makes an elite-level decision to foul the other team’s best three-point marksman in the act of shooting.

I’ve been doing this too long to confuse Media Day with March.

Still, there’s something intriguing about Pope’s premise. College basketball rosters now get assembled almost overnight. Guys who were wearing six different uniforms a few months ago suddenly have to see the same thing at precisely the same time while 20,000 people are screaming at them.

Talent helps. So does Kentucky’s length, which Pope summarized with what apparently will become this year’s bumper sticker.

“Length is our strength,” he said.

You can have all the length in the world, but eventually somebody has to decide whether to shoot, pass, cut, rotate, or get the heck out of the way.

Zoom Diallo is one of those guys. Pope talked about Diallo as a “connector,” and not just on the basketball court. During a team retreat, Pope noticed that whenever somebody wandered away from the group, Diallo seemed to instinctively go get him and bring him back.

I liked that story because it was one of the few moments Monday when basketball stopped sounding like basketball.

A roster can have enough shooting. It can have length. It can have creators and processing speed and assist-to-turnover ratios and all the other things coaches spend their lives measuring.

Somebody, however, still has to notice the guy standing by himself and go get him.

Maybe that’s basketball, too.

Which brings me back to the question I never got to ask.

This Kentucky season feels different to me. Whatever honeymoon surrounded Pope didn’t survive his second season. This is now his roster, his system, and increasingly his program. Expectations are enormous because expectations at Kentucky are always enormous. But there’s a sense that this season may tell us considerably more about where Pope and Kentucky are headed together.

I wanted to know whether he feels that, too.

More specifically, I wanted to ask whether he thinks it’s fair that so many people view this as a pivotal, perhaps even defining season for the program and for him personally. And if he does feel that weight, how in the world does the man keep from waking up at 2:30 in the morning in a cold sweat?

I really wanted to hear the answer.

My hand went up. Other questions were asked. My hand went up again. Pope talked about physicality, defense, injuries, decision-making, Larry Bird, Disneyland, what it felt like to be tall, and even whether a coach with a beard can win a national championship.

I kept waiting.

At some point, you begin to wonder whether you should raise both hands. Maybe stand on the chair. I briefly considered bringing a giant foam finger next time.

Instead, the press conference ended and I lowered my hand.

Maybe I’ll get another chance to ask the question. Maybe by February the answer will already be obvious. That’s the thing about Kentucky basketball. September gives us questions and March has a particularly ruthless way of answering them.

For now, Pope wants a team capable of making decisions.

Turns out I had one to make, too.

I could complain about not getting called on.

Or I could write the column anyway.

So here it is.

Dr. John Huang is a retired orthodontist, military veteran, and award-winning author. He currently serves as a columnist for Nolan Group Media and invites readers to follow him on social media @KYHuangs. His latest book is Whining for Posterity, available on Amazon.