Kentucky forward Ansley Almonor discussed how the rebounding improved vs. Bucknell

Kentucky is working to be more dominant on the glass.

Oct 29, 2024; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Ansley Almonor (15) shoots the ball during the second half against the Minnesota State Mavericks at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Early into the 2024-25 season, it has been hard for Mark Pope to be upset about much with his team, but the one thing he has been adamant about this team improving on was rebounding. More specifically, he wanted his team to start getting more offensive rebounds. Coach Pope understands that when a team shoots a lot of threes, it will lead to a lot of long rebounds, but he felt his team wasn't getting enough of them.

In the win over Bucknell, the Wildcats were dominant on the boards as they outrebounded the Bison 57 to 35 and outrebounded Bucknell 22 to 12 on the offensive glass.

After the game, Ansley Almonor was asked about the team's success on the boards and how it was an emphasis. Here was his response, “We have been talking about it all week and after the last three games. We haven’t been doing what we should be doing on the boards. So that has been an emphasis in practice, and even before the game today, we talked about it. That was something we wanted to go out there and dominate on today, and we did”.

One thing that should excite fans is when a team has an issue, the coach addresses it, and the issue is fixed. This didn't always happen during the John Calipari era, but when Coach Pope sees a problem, he fixes it.

Coach Pope also addresses issues before they are issues, and this type of coaching helps the team be successful. The Wildcats are working through problems early in the season, and this will show in SEC play.