Last night was so weird that Mark Pope cussed -- or did he?

It could take us days to unpack the weird stuff that happened in Kentucky’s win over Oklahoma last night. Let’s start with how Kentucky won, a one-handed, over-the-shoulder shot by Otega Oweh off one foot with 6.1 seconds left. Oweh was red-hot in the second half, scoring 21 of Kentucky’s final 23 points, but that shot may have been most improbable, on a wing and a prayer with his body twisted like a pretzel.

Oklahoma’s Jeremiah Fears tried his own heroics on the other end and came up short, Oweh tipping the ball from behind right into Brandon Garrison‘s wrist to snuff out the Sooners’ upset hopes. From there, things got really weird. Garrison turned to celebrate, right into the chest of Fears, leading to a heated exchange. Amari Williams pulled Garrison away and toward UK’s side of the court, while referees stepped in to make sure the melee didn’t escalate.

At the same time, Kerr Kriisa met Otega Oweh near the Oklahoma sideline to celebrate, bumping him into Sooners’ coaches before being escorted back to UK’s bench. It was pure chaos, with Mark Pope running around the floor trying to wrangle his team to head to the locker room. On the way there, an Oklahoma fan chucked a beer can at the players near the tunnel, narrowly missing Brandon Garrison’s head as boos rained down. Amid chants of “traitor,” Oweh crossed the court and did his SEC Network postgame interview, cool as a cucumber.

"Otega Oweh saves the day!"
– @tomleachKY
Listen to Tom Leach and Jack Givens call the final sequence of @KentuckyMBB's win at Oklahoma. pic.twitter.com/2HOSQ4zwSM

— UK Sports Network (@UKSportsNetwork) February 27, 2025

All of this is even wilder considering that four minutes of gameplay earlier, Lamont Butler fouled out. This was Butler’s first game back after he re-aggravated his shoulder injury vs. Tennessee. In limited minutes, he finished with seven points, six assists, four rebounds, three turnovers, and a team-high +10 in efficiency. Oklahoma led by two at the time. Could the Cats pull off the win without Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson, who sat the second half icing his wrist? Admit it; you were nervous.

Mark Pope was too. Unfortunately for Pope, whose Mormon faith frowns upon cussing, the SEC Network camera panned over just in time to see him drop a bad word. Or, was it?

At first glance, it looks like Pope is saying, “That’s bullshit.” Or is it, “That’s bush league”? Maybe even, “He’s pushing”?

If you look at the foul, one could argue that Jeremiah Fears “pushed” Lamont Butler down, which would be a charge instead of the blocking foul that was called. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a replay. Instead, we got to see a replay of Jalon Moore’s previous basket and trash talk, which, was indeed “bush league.”

Unless Pope fesses up, we’ll never know, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt — even if we all agree the call, like so many others, was bullshit.