Mark Pope admits referees reward coaches who throw 'tantrums' -- but they mean well

It’s been an interesting journey for Mark Pope as he’s gotten used to life in the SEC, particularly when it comes to officiating. The first-year Kentucky coach started the year by saying he regularly attends referee symposiums to develop a better understanding of calls and how difficult they are to make in real time, leading to his grace-oriented approach during games. You tend to catch more flies with honey than vinegar, right?

The conversation slightly shifted to open conference play, Pope saying the program underwent a ‘sweeping review’ of SEC officiating and found ‘some trends where we can really, really aggressively attack and make some strides’ to avoid foul trouble.

“We’re learning this league and learning the whistle,” he said at the time. “That’s a genuine thing.”

As kind as he’s been about it, his approach hasn’t been foolproof — emphasis on fool in official Terry Oglesby’s case, staring Pope down in Kentucky’s loss at Alabama because he’s hungry for power and can’t keep his own emotions in check.

This ref just stopped the entire game just to stare down and follow Mark Pope

I mean wtf 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/Thtl9Am1Xc

— Barstool Kentucky (@BarstoolUK) February 23, 2025

That was the game where Otega Oweh fouled out with just two points, ending his double-figure scoring streak with some phantom calls in Tuscaloosa. When asked about the Crimson Tide’s defense on Kentucky’s leading scorer to limit him in the box score, Pope gave his own version of criticizing the officiating that doesn’t include a hefty fine.

“Are you baiting me into an answer here?” Pope said. “I think Alabama is a terrific defensive team.”

Here we are now just days before the SEC Tournament and officiating is once again a talking point. During his call-in radio show recapping the Missouri win in Columbia and previewing the postseason, Pope was asked by a fan if ‘the squeaky wheel gets the grease’ in terms of ‘controlling what you can control and not worrying about the officiating.’

There, Pope gave his most transparent answer yet on learning the whistle in the SEC and some of the frustration he’s had with it in his debut season at Kentucky. In short, he’s felt, at times, coaches are rewarded for throwing temper tantrums whether the calls are deserved or not.

That’s changed his approach some after years of paying ‘zero attention’ to the officiating.

“It’s interesting because we have a lot of conversations about this. I’ll be really honest, early on in our SEC run, I started to feel distinctly — and I talked to several referees about it, that it was unfortunate that it really did appear like if you had a tantrum every two seconds, you kind of earned the attention of the referees and they would actually respond. That’s how I felt,” Pope said. “Because my MO coming in — which had been really good for us — was just, ‘I’m going to pay zero attention to the referees. We’re just not going to pay attention. It’s going to be what it is.’

“Like everything in life, things evolve a little bit. I do think that it helps to make the referees aware of what’s happened on the floor. I also think it could be really productive to do it in a constructive way. Sometimes a whisper is way more effective and way more moving than a tantrum. It’s just kind of picking and choosing.”

Then returned the honey over vinegar, talking about how difficult their jobs are and how confident he is officials don’t have a bone to pick with Kentucky — even if it feels that way far too often.

“I will say this as a foundation, refereeing is one of the hardest jobs in the world to get right. It’s really hard to do it right. I think our referees are probably as good as any referees there are. I think they’re good people,” Pope said. “As much as we think they’ve got an axe to grind with Kentucky or somebody else, I don’t think that’s generally true. I think it’s just a hard job. But I do think that we’re all human beings and certainly they’re going to be reactive to all kinds of different things.”

With one full regular season under his belt, his goal for next season and beyond is to get to a place where he can work positively with officials as they learn more about him as a coach just as much as he learns about them as referees.

He may not be peeling paint with screaming matches constantly, but there’s also a balance of making his point clear at whatever volume he deems necessary, depending on the situation.

“What I’d like to do is I’d like to work with these referees and make this product great and help Kentucky win. In all of that, somewhere, sometimes there’s an appropriate time to lose your mind — which I’ve done a few times this year, some with good effect and some with negative effect. Most of the time, it’s really good to be super constructive,” Pope continued. “Just like I’m getting to know the referees in this league, they’re getting to know me also, and they’re getting to know our team. I think it’s going to bode well for us in the future that we have a great working relationship. It does not have to be adversarial. It really doesn’t — because these are good people trying their hardest to do a good job.

“There’s been an awful lot of good whistle that we’ve gotten this year, too. It’s not an exact science — as human beings, we are anything but exact sciences — but it’s a really important dynamic of the game that we’re learning to get better at every single day.”

But how about those temper tantrums from opposing coaches?