The SEC fined Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope $25,000 and issued him a public reprimand for “postgame conduct and comments related to officiating” after the Wildcats’ 75-74 loss Saturday at Auburn, the conference announced Tuesday.
The Tigers got the winning basket after a controversial offensive foul on Kentucky guard Collin Chandler, who was trying to free himself to catch an inbounds pass and help Kentucky salt away a late lead at the foul line. Asked about it at his news conference afterward, Pope attempted to thread the needle of criticizing the officials without directly criticizing the officials.
“We refuse to give control to people who are outside our program,” Pope said. “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.”
Seconds after the presser ended and Pope left the table, cameras picked him up saying this, presumably to 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.”
The SEC clearly saw, and heard, it differently. The outcome halted a five-game losing streak for Auburn (15-12, 6-8 SEC) and kept Steven Pearl’s Tigers on the right side of the bubble. Kentucky (17-10, 8-6) is on a three-game losing streak entering Tuesday’s game at South Carolina and needs to avoid a bad loss — with Vanderbilt, Texas A&M and Florida closing the regular season — or bubble talk could return quickly to Lexington.