The SEC can fine Mark Pope after all.
Following the Kentucky head coach’s outburst when leaving the press room after the Wildcats’ last-second loss to Auburn on Saturday, the conference has fined Pope $25,000 and given a public reprimand “for post-game conduct and comments related to officiating following the Wildcats’ game at Auburn University on February 21.”
After leaving his press conference, Pope could be overheard saying ““Mitch, if those MFers try to fine me, they can’t. I didn’t say a word about how they cheated us,” to Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart.
Pope seemed to be most upset about an offensive foul call with 14.2 seconds left that gave Auburn the ball back, setting up Elyjah Freeman’s game-winning tip with 1.2 seconds to go. Auburn guard Kevin Overton drew the foul from Wildcats’ guard Collin Chandler.
Mark Pope continues to lose support of Kentucky fans
But, as pointed out by yours truly in this article on Sunday, bad calls by the SEC referees went both ways, including a foul on Tahaad Pettiford on a three-point shooter when the Auburn guard wasn’t close to touching the Kentucky shooter. It was also Kentucky’s third straight loss and one that put them back on the NCAA Tournament bubble, something that will not go over well in Lexington in Pope’s second season in charge. This was supposed to be a top-10 team entering the season, after a massive roster overhaul that reportedly cost as much as $22 million to assemble. Instead, the Wildcats are 17-10, 8-6 in SEC play and are in danger of going without a conference title for the sixth straight season.
Pope was a popular choice when he was hired to succeed John Calipari at Kentucky, but that popularity has worn off in Big Blue Country as the Wildcats underperform once again.
Hopefully, for the head coach, some of his players earning all that NIL money will help him pay the fine.