Mark Pope believes Kentucky is finally 'learning the whistle' in the SEC: "Our guys are pretty good at getting better."

You may recall Mark Pope said his Kentucky program was ‘seeing some trends where we can really, really aggressively attack and make some strides’ following its ‘sweeping review’ of SEC officiating. There was clear frustration in how the Wildcats could go from averaging 16.1 fouls per game to 22.0 through five conference matchups.

It wasn’t about changing how referees were calling games — and certainly not a public fine-warranting criticism of the stripes — but rather adapting to how games were being called to improve defensively and stop sending teams to the line. He wanted his team to adjust, not the officials.

“It’s given us some real direction,” Pope said during his call-in radio show Monday. “I think there’s a good chance that we have a chance to make some massive improvements.”

With a full week off between games, how have the Wildcats used that growth to their advantage in practice and film ahead of their trip to Nashville to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores?

Pope says it starts with the concerns, things his group is doing poorly at this stage with two clear problem areas popping up in the review: free-throw rate and two-point field goal efficiency on defense. The fouls, unfortunately, are fouls and the defense just isn’t good enough even when they’re not fouling.

“It’s all of the above, really. Kind of really deep dives into what the numbers are telling us and what the correlation is with winning. There are some numbers that are concerning to us — clearly, the free-throw rate is a real problem for us right now and two-point field goal percentage is a real problem for us, rim shot percentage is a real problem for us. Rim shot selection is actually pretty good for us, but it’s offset because we’re fouling, right?”

It’s not an overnight process, but there is a lot to work with and plenty of reason for optimism, Pope believes. The issues are glaring and they know how to address them.

As a result, improvements are already being made, this week off being crucial as they push toward those goals.

“You have those numbers, then it’s about figuring out how to do it a little bit better. Certainly our guys’ focus will be good,” Pope said. “You don’t wave a magic wand and all of a sudden fix some of this, but we’re going to make progress. We’ll make progress throughout the season, and we’re excited. But I think we feel like we have some pretty clear spaces to attack right now, some really clear, specific words that we’re using and themes that we’re chasing.

“I think we’ll get better. Our guys are pretty good at getting better. They’re good at it.”

Again, Pope won’t share the data — not gonna give Vanderbilt any kind of advantage — but they’re finally ‘learning this league and learning the whistle,’ he said.

“That’s a genuine thing.”