Mark Pope Wants Cats to Learn How to Benefit From Whistles

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In Kentucky’s first two Southeastern Conference games, Florida and Georgia have shot a combined 73 free throws compared to 43 for UK.

The only reason that did not lead to a loss to Florida was because the Gators missed 13 of their 35 tries at the loss in the 106-100 loss

While many Kentucky fans were especially upset with the officiating at Georgia, Kentucky coach Mark Pope had a different take on the issue he shared during his weekly radio show Wednesday night.

Pope isn’t worried about how the games are being called. Instead, he has his coaching staff trying to figure out how to better understand how the calls are being made so his players can adjust. He said the staff is doing an “in-depth study) about what fouls were called.

“We’re not interested in what the rules are, we’re interested in the rules that are being called. We want to push the envelope as far as we can toward the rules that are being called more than just following the rules that are written,” Pope told Tom Leach on the radio show. “We’re learning the whistle right now. We got a massive education on the whistle last night.”

Using the words “massive education” is as close as Pope will come to blaming officials for UK’s 82-69 loss despite the free throw disparity but wants to use the “whistle” to UK’s advantage.

“For our fans, I’m fine if you guys do all the work you can on these beautiful referees. You guys have at it — very diplomatically,” Pope said. “But I would also say this. One of the things I remind myself about all the time is that the referee is doing a really, really hard job.

“The truth is that most of the time  a call that may be wildly upsetting that goes against us, when I’m really honest with myself, I can find a few calls that are wildly egregiously probably not what I would have imagined the rules would have been interpreted as in favor for us. So I always take a deep breath.”

Good advice, good perspective but UK cannot give up 36.5 free throws per game in conference play and expect to win most games.

“When we’re good, the whistle won’t determine wins or losses,” the Kentucky coach said. “We will determine wins or losses. I always want my players to know that.

“At the end of the day, this game will never be taken out of our hands. We can find a way to win this game, regardless of how the whistle sounds. And sometimes that’s by using the whistle.”