Kentucky coach Mark Pope may be biting his tongue.
Unbeknownst to Pope, reporters attending his press conference following Kentucky’s 75-74 loss to Auburn on Saturday recorded a conversation between the coach and Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart after he’d left the podium.
“Mitch, if those mother-effers try to fine me, screw them,” Pope told his AD. “I did not say a word about how they cheated us.”
The SEC issued a $25,000 fine as punishment on Tuesday for violating league rules.
“University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope has been issued a public reprimand and fined $25,000 by the Southeastern Conference for post-game conduct and comments related to officiating following the Wildcats’ game at Auburn University on February 21,” the SEC said in a statement. “The comments violated SEC Bylaw 10.5.3 (Sportsmanship) and the SEC Commissioner’s Regulation regarding Public Criticism of Officials, which prohibit coaches, student-athletes and institutional staff from publicly criticizing officials or disclosing officiating-related communications.”
The second-year Kentucky coach seemed to be fired up about a late offensive foul call on Collin Chandler for pushing off an Auburn player on the inbounds. It resulted in Auburn’s possession with only 14 seconds left in the game. Elyjah Freeman went on to score a buzzer tip-in to give the Tigers the narrow victory.
Pope offered a cleaner answer when asked about the play postgame.
“Well, we’re not allowed to talk about the referees,” Pope said. “But you guys saw it. I think, sometimes, it’s just super personal. I’m not allowed to comment on the referees. I won’t comment on the referees. It’s unfortunate that — it’s just unfortunate. It didn’t cost us the game. We’re in control of the game. We’ll find ways to go win.”
He went on to say his team will “refuse” to give control to anything outside of themselves.
“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,” he added. “Regardless of how blatantly people are trying to make this not happen, we refuse to give them our power. … 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.”
It marked the third consecutive loss for the Wildcats, two of which have come at the hands of ranked opponents. It’s also their fourth loss in their last seven games.
It left Kentucky tied for sixth (8-6 in conference play) in the SEC standings with only two weeks to go until the conference tournament.