LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mark Pope and Cody Fueger came to Kentucky last year with a reputation for relying on the numbers, and they weren’t shy about one in particular.

The new UK basketball coaches wanted their first group of Wildcats to put up 35 3-pointers a game. Fueger — known as the “offensive coordinator” on Pope’s staff at BYU — stated that number early and clearly.

It wasn’t a joke — no UK team has averaged even 30 long-range shots per game over the course of a season — or some pie-in-the-sky figure. It was a real goal, indicative of the way Pope and Fueger wanted their team to play amid a college basketball landscape that was trending toward putting up more perimeter shots.

Those Cats ultimately set a school record for most made 3-pointers in a season, but they fell far short of Fueger’s stated goal. They averaged 25.3 3-point attempts per game, fourth in program history — behind three of Rick Pitino’s earliest UK teams.

So, what’s in store for Year 2? Maybe a more realistic number for these Cats to hit?

Nope.

“Shoot, if we can get up 60 3s, I’m gonna take it,” Fueger said. “As many 3s as we can get up!”

For the UK basketball brain trust, 35 3-pointers per game remains the goal. And they say it’s plenty realistic.

Pope, Fueger and the Wildcats running it back for a second season clearly think this UK roster is better equipped to actually hit that number, even if past results would call that into question.

“This group might not have come in with the reputation of being as prolific 3-point shooters as some of the guys we brought in last year, but the progress they made every single week during the summer was remarkable,” Pope said. “And we have some guys that are shooting the ball at such an elite level right now. It’s pretty inspiring. So we will continue to push that number as high as we can. And Coach Fueger and I are still arguing about it.”

Arguing about how to get to 35, that is. Not the number itself.

“There’s nobody in the world more proud that last year’s team made more 3s than any team in the history of Kentucky basketball,” Pope said. “I would like to run that back, you know, times two this year. And I think we have a group that can do it.”

Watching Collin Chandler and Trent Noah

This time last year, it was clear to anyone who watched the Cats that Jaxson Robinson was the UK player most comfortable letting it fly in the way that Pope and Fueger wanted.

That made sense. Robinson was the only Wildcat who had played for the two offensive-minded, analytically inclined coaches, spending two previous seasons with them at BYU before following them to Lexington. He averaged 6.9 long-range attempts per game in his final year as a Cougar.

That UK roster also featured Koby Brea and Ansley Almonor — two guys who put up a combined 13.5 3-point attempts per game for their respective teams in the previous season — and a number of others who were either proven or capable of shooting at a high rate.

But those players new to the Pope/Fueger approach struggled to actually apply that ultimate green light during games. Robinson didn’t hesitate. Pretty much everyone else did. Even Brea, one of the most celebrated shooters in college basketball, tapped the brakes from the perimeter against some of UK’s early marquee opponents, his launch rate rising toward the end of the SEC play and into tournament time.

Kentucky’s players acknowledged during the season that — while what the coaches were telling them was not hard to grasp — it was difficult to shed years of guidance to wait for the best shot in a possession and simply let loose at the first open opportunity.

“It’s super tough, I would say,” Otega Oweh said, looking back on last season. “But then you got to look at it like: They’re asking you to shoot the ball. Every player wants to just shoot the ball. So it does take a little bit of adjusting. …

“It’s not changing your game, but it’s just being more aware of, like, ‘Hey, we’re telling you, you can shoot these 3s. Just go ahead and let them fly.’”

Now, it’s a new roster of guys trying to apply that concept.

Kam Williams made 63 3-pointers as a freshman at Tulane last season — more than any player on this UK team. Finding the right balance has been a daily struggle.

“Even guys like Kam, who’s a shooter’s shooter — it took him some adjusting,” Oweh said. “Like, ‘Oh, these guys want me to shoot it if I get any type of space?’”

Just minutes before Fueger sat at his desk in the Joe Craft Center and talked about the 2025-26 goals to put up more 3-pointers, Williams had been sitting in that same office.

“We’re watching film every day with him, just so he sees it over and over again,” Fueger said. “I’m pulling up Jaxson Robinson clips from last year. We’re watching Collin Chandler and Trent Noah, just to show the type of freedom and what we expect from them.”

Fueger held up Chandler and Noah — two freshmen on last season’s team — as the early standard for this UK squad. Both have been fearless in terms of letting it fly in practice. Both are hitting at a high rate, too.

Instead of just Robinson for Kentucky’s coaches to point to in the preseason, this summer and fall has featured Chandler, Noah, Oweh and Brandon Garrison as examples of how to do it. Does having four such guys rather than one make it easier to get their point on 3-pointers across?

Fueger let out a long exhale. So much easier, that expression said.

“Yeah, because last year it was really just Jaxson who really understood the feel and what we’re looking for,” he said. “But right now, we’ve got Collin Chandler. We’ve got Trent Noah. So we have a couple more guys. And Otega’s got a great feel, obviously.

“And Kam Williams is seeing it every day. And all these other guys are seeing it. Denzel Aberdeen is seeing it every day. Like, Aberdeen is not turning stuff down. He’s getting after it.”

Kentucky’s quest for more 3-pointers

Embracing the green light has been contagious.

Fueger mentioned Aberdeen — a 35% shooter with 103 attempts at Florida last season — as an early adopter. “He’s been shooting the leather off the ball,” Oweh added a few days later.

Aberdeen flashed a wide smile when the idea of 35 3s per game was mentioned.

“I’d be happy,” he said of hitting that goal. “(Pope) always tells me, ‘Just shoot it.’ I think that’s the confidence he instills in our players. We’re not going out there playing timid or anything like that. Coach has got full confidence in us. We’re going to have confidence in ourselves.”

Early looks at the team suggest new point guard Jaland Lowe — when he returns from his shoulder injury — won’t be shy either.

Lowe took a team-high 154 3-point attempts at Pittsburgh last season, and while he shot a dreadful 26.6%, playing in this UK offense is expected to provide him with much better looks. Pope said Lowe actually led the Cats in 3-point percentage in five-on-five play over the summer.

“It just allows me to play freely and play my game and not have to worry too much about the shots that I’m getting,” Lowe said of UK’s offense. “Just getting the right shots and taking them with confidence. I think that’s what we’ve preached all summer. … And those coaches help instill a lot in us.”

To Fueger’s point, teammates have helped, too.

“We definitely asked them, like, ‘Yo, is he serious? Like, ‘He wants us to take this shot?’ Or, ‘He wants us to shoot it this fast?’” Lowe said. “And they’re like, ‘Yeah, bro, you got it!’

“They were the main ones that instilled that confidence in us. Because even though Collin and Trent were freshmen last year — O was a first-year player, BG was a first-year player — we look to them, because they’re returners. We put a lot of trust in them. And they’ve helped us grow tremendously.”

Freshman guard Jasper Johnson seems to have embraced the green light. Chandler and Noah will be 3-point threats whenever they’re on the court, and Oweh has talked about shooting from deep at a higher rate this season.

Williams is still getting the hang of it, but he’s progressing. In Friday night’s exhibition win over Purdue, he went 2 for 6 from deep in 16 minutes. Only Johnson took more 3-pointers.

Andrija Jelavic — the 6-foot-11 forward with a face-the-basket game — is still coming around, too. Sometimes, if the Cats are practicing in Rupp Arena or Memorial Coliseum and a player passes up a shot, Pope will send him running up the stairs.

“He’s had several trips to the top of the stadium and several lectures,” he said of Jelavic. “But he’s making great progress.”

Kentucky’s staff also made some conscious roster-building decisions — as well as some tweaks to play style — during the offseason that could boost those 3-point numbers.

The Cats are expecting to apply more pressure defensively, and they have the personnel to do it. The thinking is that will lead to more turnovers, a faster pace of play, and, ultimately, more 3-point looks in transition.

Kentucky’s 2025-26 roster is also built to better battle on the offensive boards, and coming up with more of their own misses will allow these Cats to get extra possessions.

But the real separator might simply come from watching their teammates.

Instead of studying Robinson — and maybe wondering if this is really what their coaches want — these Cats have seen what Chandler, Noah, Oweh and Garrison are doing. More of them are getting the hang of it, as a result. The rest should come around more quickly than last year’s bunch. And those who already get it can’t wait to show it.

“It’s an amazing offense,” Lowe said. “I really love it.”

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