“It’s hard to find people like that.”

His season-long averages aren’t particularly eye-catching, but his numbers always impact the game. He has become the perfect spot-up shooter off the bench. Almonor is shooting 55 percent from the field, 43 percent from deep and 89 percent from distance. He could have gone to a smaller school through the transfer portal in the offseason and put up more impressive stats in his final collegiate run, but he chose to fade into the background with dreams of a big win.

“Let me tell you about Ansley Almonor,” Pope continued. “Ansley was one of the last to sign up for our squad. He has been an all-conference player in his previous conference for several years. Probably the best player on this team in recent years. He knew he was going to come here and come off the bench Andrew Carr…

“And so Ansley was like, ‘I don’t care.’ I want to come to Kentucky. I want to wear this jersey. And I want to be the best player coming off the bench, the best player in the locker room, and make the right shots when we need them. Come and play tough games.’ It’s hard to find people like that who want to lose themselves in the team. He’s so much fun to coach.”

Almonor could easily sulk over his limited minutes or shots. As a junior last season, he took 12.8 shots per game. So far in 2024-25, he’s at just 4.3 per game. But when he got to Kentucky, he decided to play for something bigger than himself. Almonor may not take the most shots, but he’s becoming a fan favorite across the Big Blue Nation as he’s ready to taking on a role that many successful veteran players simply don’t want to have.

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