Braydon Hawthorne details Kentucky's focus on defense in practice

Mark Pope was brutally honest about where Kentucky's defense stands right now in his press conference on Monday, saying the Wildcats have a 'long way to go.' That came after the players hyped up Kentucky's potential on that end of the floor, and while that may be true, Kentucky still has work to do.

Kentucky incoming freshman Braydon Hawthorne detailed a step Pope and the staff are taking in practice to help the team improve in that area. He talked about a certain drill in practice that Pope introduced to help the team get where he knows they can get on the defensive end. That has made the team step up, not only during the particular drill, but throughout practice. "Today, we were going at it. Man, today we were playing really aggressive on the defensive end," Hawthorne said. "I feel like we got a whole bunch of guys who can guard several positions, so it's gonna be fun." As far as the defensive drill goes, Pope is really ramping up the intensity on that end, specifically in terms of legal contests, which he talked about on Monday. Hawthorne went in-depth on how defense has been in practice.

"They count how many you miss or you make throughout the day and if you don't get 100 percent, there's a punishment behind it," Hawthorne said. "You just gotta do a lot of close-outs, contests. ...I feel like I've gotten better as the weeks have gone by with that. I didn't start off that well with that, but I'm getting there." The 6-8 wing also noted that he has been staying after practices and playing one-on-one with some of the players, really keying in on improving his physicality. He knows how important it is for a young player like him to lock in on defense. "That's what separates the young guys from getting on the floor is defense, so I feel like that's a big piece of what I'm gonna have to do to get on the floor.

Mark Pope wanted his squad in year two to be much better defensively and handle physicality better, and it looks like that is already highly focused on in practice.