Mark Pope says Kentucky has a long way to go to reach their defensive potential

In off-season interviews, the 2025-26 Kentucky Wildcats have been very bullish on what they can be defensively next season, with Mo Dioubate being one example, saying the Wildcats can have on of their best defensive teams in a long time. In his press conference on Monday, Mark Pope addressed the team's defensive potential, where he pulled the curtain back on how things are going on the defensive end right now.

The Wildcats got the chance to scrimmage Kentucky's TBT team, La Familia, last week, where Pope and the staff got eyes on their current squad going up against another team. When asked about the team's defensive potential to be elite, Pope says he can see the vision, but they've got a long way to go.

"Well, I think right now we want to believe that, but we're so far from that. I thought after the first quarter of the TBT game I was going to crash out. It was brutal. We didn't guard anybody. I think La Familia was like a 1.8 points per possession after the first quarter, so we are a million miles away from being the team that we think we can be. ...I do think the potential is there, we just have to a long way to go to get there."

Jayden Quaintance, who will be one of the anchors for the Wildcats on defense once he returns from injury, recently said the team is 'buying in' to being great defensively. He and Mo Dioubate together, along with returning veteran Brandon Garrison, could end up being one of the best defensive frontcourts in college basketball. Add that along with the defensive potential in the backcourt, and Kentucky could be scary defensively. Pope was very grateful for the opportunity for his squad to scrimmage La Familia, even if it does expose some current holes in the team, because coaches are always looking for areas to improve on. "It just puts you in an environment where, I don’t know if any of the data is real, but it just gives you the vibe of it, gives you some direction for these eight weeks," Pope said.

As Pope said, the Wildcats have a long way to go to get where they want to be to reach that defensive potential that the players are preaching about.