NCAAB News: Mark Pope gets real on the referees after loss to Georgia

The Kentucky Wildcats didn’t look like their usual selves on Tuesday night. They failed to keep up with the Georgia Bulldogs, dropping an 82-69 contest against a fellow SEC rival.

They were erratic and couldn’t get into an offensive rhythm. Their opponents, on the other hand, had four different players scoring in double digits and kept pushing the break and sharing the ball.

However, perhaps the most glaring issue came at the free-throw line. The Bulldogs went to the line 38 times, twice as many as Kentucky. Even so, coach Mark Pope won’t blame the loss on the referees.

Mark Pope won’t blame the referees for loss to Georgia

“Listen, that doesn’t have anything to do with this game, man,” Pope said. “We leave all that stuff. We’re working on the next play. We’re going to go control the stuff we need to control. And we can control enough factors in this game to win the game. That will always be true. So we refuse to be distracted by that.”

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope watches his team play against Lipscomb on Tuesday night, Nov. 19, 2024, at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky

The coach also admitted that his team has had problems maintaining the intensity throughout the entire game. That’s going to be a point of emphasis for Coach Pope:

“We’re starting the game well. We’re starting games well,” Pope said. “The 12- to four-minute segment has been a little problematic for us. We’re doing some deep dives into tandems that work on the floor, but there’s something in there that’s just been troublesome for us. I don’t know if it’s scheme, flow, lineup. We’re still digging into that and we’re fine.”

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Unfortunately, the Wildcats won’t have a lot of time to bounce back and put this loss in the rearview mirror, as three of their next four and four of their next five games will all be against ranked opponents.