‘‘Embarrassing. Personal. Awful.’ Mark Pope vents after UK’s late loss at Auburn
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK basketball coach Mark Pope talked about the ending to Kentucky’s SEC loss at Auburn.
- The Wildcats lost to the Tigers, 75-74, on a last-second tip-in by Elyjah Freeman.
- Kentucky has now lost three straight games for the first time under Pope.
Things were short, sweet and tense at Neville Arena following Kentucky basketball’s last-second loss at Auburn on Saturday night.
The Wildcats’ 75-74 defeat to the Tigers was a lot of things. Controversial is a word that will spring to mind for most UK backers in its aftermath.
Let’s go straight to the finish.
Holding a 74-73 lead with 14.3 seconds left on the clock, Mark Pope’s team had possession of the ball underneath Auburn’s basket. Senior guard Otega Oweh — who scored a career-best 29 points in the game — was to deliver the inbounds pass. Four other Wildcats were sprayed across the court, looking to receive the ball.
Sophomore Collin Chandler inched toward Oweh and tried to gain separation from Auburn junior Kevin Overton in order to receive the ball, with two free throws likely to follow. Instead, Chandler was whistled for an offensive foul, handing the Tigers the ball with a chance to win the game.
That they did.
On Auburn’s third shot attempt of the ensuing possession, sophomore Elyjah Freeman delivered the winning tip-in with less than two seconds to play, handing the Wildcats their third straight loss.
The foul called on Chandler was questionable. He and Overton were holding each other. Chandler pushed off with two arms. Overton grabbed Chandler’s jersey from the back. Overton went down without much of a fight.
All of this is true. Also true?
That Pope delivered strong words referencing the end-of-game sequence during his press conference, which began quickly after the game ended and lasted less than four minutes.
“Well, we’re not allowed to talk about the referees,” Pope began. “But you guys saw it. And I think sometimes it’s just super personal. I’m not allowed to comment on the referees. I won’t comment on the referees.”
Pope searched for words to continue that thought.
“It’s unfortunate that... Just unfortunate.”
One minute later, Pope was asked about the message he would deliver to his players given the circumstances surrounding the defeat, which marked the first time UK has lost three straight games under Pope’s direction.
“We refuse to give control to people that are outside of our program. Refuse,” Pope said. “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 our power. That’s what I talked about.
“... 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, like, unacceptable things are, we refuse to give away our power.”
Stepping off the podium and back into the bowels of Neville Arena — a venue where the Cats have now lost four of their past five games — Pope let loose even more.
“Mitch, if those mother-fers try to fine me, screw ‘em,” Pope said to UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart, who was on hand for the game. “Because I did not say a word about how they cheated us.”
UK basketball came undone in late loss at Auburn
Sprinkled within those stern words from Pope was typical coach speak.
Pope talked about how that one foul call on Chandler didn’t cost UK the game. He referenced UK’s next game — Tuesday night at South Carolina — and the magnitude of that matchup, which presents as UK’s most likely win among its final four regular season contests. And he added perhaps the ultimate truism from a coach, explaining that his Wildcats have sole control over winning or losing basketball games.
Despite how those connected to Kentucky basketball may feel about the major refereeing moment of Saturday, the game revealed plenty of hard truths about the Wildcats’ on-court play.
For a second straight game, UK failed to capitalize on a career scoring night from Oweh. He tied his career high with 28 points in Tuesday’s home loss to Georgia. He went one better Saturday, tallying 29 points while tying for the team lead in rebounds with seven and assisting on three baskets.
After nailing 12 3-pointers against Georgia, the Cats’ best showing from deep in SEC play, UK reverted to its frigid distance-shooting ways. Against Auburn — which entered Saturday with the SEC’s worst 3-point shooting defense — Kentucky went 6 for 23 (26.1%) from beyond the arc.
Turnovers were another problem. The Wildcats had 14, their third-highest total of the season and their second-most in SEC play. Kentucky has been outscored in points off turnovers in each game of its current three-game losing skid. Florida and Georgia each bettered UK by 13 points off takeaways. Auburn claimed a 17-10 points-off-turnovers advantage.
Chandler had five turnovers himself, a career worst, and missed his final five 3-point tries of the game.
Depth issues are also rearing their ugly heads again. For the eighth straight contest, Pope’s program was down to just nine healthy scholarship players. That effectively became eight in the second half, when freshman guard Jasper Johnson didn’t play. Johnson played just two minutes in the first half, and the Wildcats were outscored by six points in his brief time on the court.
The Cats who are playing may need to just perform better, despite the workload that’s being asked of them. UK built 46-37 lead with 17:53 to play at Auburn. UK made just two shots from the field over the next 11:42 of game time as the Tigers clawed their way back.
“We had so much fatigue on the floor. It’s something we’ve been trying to monitor,” Pope told UK broadcaster Tom Leach in his postgame radio interview. “So much of our offense is based on movement and pace, and the next part of the action. It was just fatigue... We got to have a couple other guys step up and play a little bit more minutes for us... It was just straight-up fatigue trying to operate on the court.”
Kentucky basketball faces daunting late-season stretch
Pope described the second half of Saturday’s game — during which UK shot 36.7% from the field and got 25 of its 35 points from Oweh (17) and an under-the-weather Denzel Aberdeen (eight) — as “hard for us.”
UK’s remaining regular season slate promises more of the same.
Kentucky has a relative softball Tuesday with a road game at South Carolina. The Gamecocks are 12-15 overall and 3-11 in SEC games, but they are coming off a home win over Mississippi State on Saturday.
The Cats will be expected to win that one. After that, good luck.
UK closes the regular season at home to Vanderbilt, at Texas A&M and with a Senior Day showcase at Rupp Arena against defending national champion Florida. UK is now two games behind the top four teams in the SEC standings, a coveted finishing spot that comes with a double bye in the SEC Tournament. This after UK was playing for first place in the SEC just one week ago.
This isn’t the first time Kentucky’s season has been in free fall. There was the disappointment of the nonconference. The dismal start to SEC play. A generationally bad loss at Vanderbilt that was stuck in between signs of life.
Kentucky is going to have to get up off the mat, again.
“It’s still in our control. It is in our power,” Pope told Leach about what happens next. “So it can be frustrating, it can be hard, it could drive you crazy. But the thing is, we control winning and losing. We were one play short tonight... We can take exactly this situation, every single bit of it, all of the really horrid, distressing people that were associated with this game, and we can still win this game if we make one more play. So it’s in our control, and that’s the way it’ll always be with this game.”
