Mark Pope has landed a hefty fine after the Kentucky basketball head coach made comments seemingly aimed towards officials following the Wildcats’ loss to Auburn on Saturday.
Per The Athletic’s Joe Rexrode, the SEC is fining Pope $25,000 and issued him a public reprimand for “postgame conduct and comments related to officiating.”
“We refuse to give control to people who are outside our program,” Pope said after the loss to Auburn. “Refuse. Regardless of how personal it might get. Or how bad it might get, we refuse to give control to fans, to give control to anybody else associated with this game. Regardless of how blatantly people are trying to make this not happen, we refuse to give them that power. That’s what I talked about (with my team). We’ve got 48 hours to turn this around, we’ve got a massive game at South Carolina, we’re gonna find a way to win it because that’s what we do.
“So we’re not giving away our power. We’re not. Like, we don’t make excuses, we don’t do that. Regardless of what is happening. Regardless of how disgraceful things are. We don’t give away our power. Regardless of how embarrassing, personal, awful, unacceptable things are. We refuse to give away our power.”
After his press conference, mics picked up Pope telling Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart: “Mitch, if those (expletives) try to fine me, screw ’em. I didn’t say a word about how they cheated us.”
Pope’s comments followed a controversial ending to Saturday’s clash with the Tigers. Kentucky led 74-73 with 14 seconds remaining when Collin Chandler was called for an offensive foul for pushing off of Kevin Overton, giving the ball back to Auburn. The Tigers scored a go-ahead basket at the last second on the other end to seal the win.
Pope also said that the officiating felt “personal.”
“Well, we’re not allowed to talk about the referees. But you guys saw it, and I think sometimes it’s just super personal. So, I’m not allowed to comment on the referees and I won’t comment on the referees. It’s unfortunate. It’s just unfortunate. It didn’t cost us the game because we’re in control of the game, but we’ll find ways to go win.”
Kentucky had a disappointing 9-6 start to Pope’s second season before turning things around and winning eight of nine conference games. The Wildcats have since lost their last three matchups and are currently sitting at 17-10 on the year and 8-6 in SEC play.
Kentucky is currently projected to be a No. 8 seed in the latest Bracketology from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. The Wildcats have matchups against South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M and Florida to close out the regular season.
“There’s no message to our team,” Pope said. “We come to compete. We’re coming to compete. We’re a little shorthanded right now but we have control over winning and losing. I thought the guys put together a great effort tonight and we didn’t get the win. Now we get to work on Tuesday and go get the win. That’s what we do. We’re not sitting here trying to consider nonsense. We’re trying to win games.”
