Mark Pope on Lamont Butler: 'I expect him to have six steals every single night'

Lamont Butler is going to have a special season for Kentucky.

Oct 23, 2024; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Lamont Butler (1) shoots the ball during the second half against the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Kentucky point guard Lamont Butler had a special night as the Wildcats took on Kentucky Wesleyan, scoring 11 points while going 5-8 shooting. He had six steals, six rebounds, six assists, and two blocks. The most impressive part of Butler's performance was that as the primary ball handler, he didn't have a single turnover.

After the game, Coach Mark Pope had a lot of great things to say about Butler's performance against Kentucky Wesleyan and his expectations for the rest of the season.

Here is what Coach Pope had to say about Butler after his performance against Kentucky Wesleyan, "I expect him to have six steals every single night. But I've never seen this number. Lamont Butler had more steals than our whole team had turnovers tonight. I've never seen that, actually. That's really incredible. He is a special player. I've never coached a guy like him on the defensive at the point of attack. Listen, I'm telling you, this Kennedy Miles is a terrific basketball player. Kennedy Miles is a terrific basketball player. He's a championship team leading point guard. He's a terrific basketball player. He didn't have his best night tonight, but Lamont Butler had a lot to do with that, and it gets hard. At some point during the game, it was the right decision. Drew chose to work a lot of 4-5 ball screens because you had this Deion Sanders corner like we are not throwing that side of the field anymore. Forget it; we are just not going over there. That's the type of impact that Lamont could have. He is incredibly special, and I think you have heard me say 100 times. I think he is the best defensive perimeter player in college basketball and, certainly, the best defensive point guard, and also a great leader. I thought he was terrific tonight, and I thought he got our guys started well. One of the great things about Lamont is playing at San Diego State. We had to play them every year, and the show, if you have not heard of it, San Diego State, is pretty insane, and so this environment is super familiar to him. He has played in the Final Four and National Championship games, and he's pretty unphased. I'm telling you. It is a gift to have a player like that you can lean on as a coach. He is really special."

Butler is a great leader for this team, and his defense will be hard for the opposing guards to handle all season long. He is going to be a Wildcat remembered for a very long time for his play on the court and character off of it.