Team chemistry has been the biggest buzz online for the Kentucky men’s basketball team this winter, allocating that to the team’s struggles and to fans wondering, “What the heck is going on?”
The team is off to a 6-4 start and has lost to every ranked competition they’ve faced. Even after a summer of reports stating that this basketball program had the highest NIL budget of all, which should equal to one of the best teams of all as you pile up the most talent, supposedly, they just aren’t putting a display on the court to back that up whatsoever.
Many fans feel like this team has chemistry issues and so after last night’s 103-67 win over the North Carolina Central Eagles, the media had the opportunity to speak to a few of the players following Mark Pope’s post game press conference. Two of the players that were available were Kentucky senior Otega Oweh and sophomore Trent Noah.
They were asked if there is any truth to the off-the-court rumors circulating online, and they both quickly shut that down and said it was not true.
“I haven’t seen that personally. That is not true. Right now, off of these losses it’s kind of bringing us closer together. It’s so cliche to say, every team wants to be a tightknit group, but I do think that we are. We really do have each others backs and we’re continuing to learn and trust to play with each other on the court, but off the court, I mean these are some of my best friends. They would say the same thing about me.”
Otega Oweh seemed to echo those same feelings that Trent Noah expressed post game, saying this.
“Coach (Mark Pope) has been pushing this team to be “fed up”. I feel like he is trying to give us that seriousness and that intensity that we all should have.” He continued with, “Obviously, we’re 0-4 in these high-major games. We’ve got to be fed up. He’s trying his best to show us that.”
The one thing Oweh says this team is not lacking though, is off the court chemistry. “It ain’t no off the court stuff,” he said. “It’s all on the court. Obviously, people are going to speculate, but it’s all on the court. We’re the closest group. We’re all good. It ain’t nothing off the court.”
It is good to hear that a few Wildcats do not believe in the speculation about the off-the-court chemistry issues, however, there is still abundantly clear some issues with this group when it comes to showing up against bigger opponents. Being 6-0 against unranked competition and 0-4 against the ranked, something isn’t correlating in these tougher matchups — at least not to the Kentucky standards.
The next chance the Wildcats get to try to earn a win against a highly-rated opponent is this coming Saturday against Indiana (8-2) inside of Rupp Arena. Both programs aren’t ranked, but the Hoosier’s are trending upward and are on the verge of being ranked. They’re a vastly different program level than the other team’s (except North Carolina) Kentucky has played at home this season, so if Kentucky can protect home court then it will help this fanbase with the stresses they’re currently having.
Here are Mark Pope’s thoughts about the thirty-six point win last night in Rupp Arena.
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