Want some fire from Mark Pope? Recent losses have led to "completely destroyed furniture in the locker room"

How does the old saying go? Nice guys finish last? That’s been a recent criticism of Mark Pope, fans wanting to see some fire from the Kentucky head coach as the program loses four of its last five matchups. Could his approach be the cause of the Wildcats’ struggles with fight and urgency?

One fan called into Pope’s radio show Wednesday night and asked if he thought he needed to ‘be more stern’ with his team on occasion. Maybe that’s the kick in the pants the Cats need at this stage?

Pope agrees, but believes there is a delicate balance between burning white hot for the sake of doing so and being intentional with that fire. They’re choosing the right times to let off some steam — and more has come as of late.

“I could talk to you for hours about this. We like to burn white hot — we know the way we coach, the way I coach, you get moments where you can burn white hot,” Pope said Wednesday. “If you pick and choose them carefully, the messaging can be really powerful. Sometimes it can come in a different way than you expected.

“We’re taking some opportunities to burn a little white hot, but we’re trying to be really, really intentional about them and not be emotionally belligerent. This game is just begging for you to be angry just because you’re angry, and to be frustrated just because you’re frustrated, and to lash out at your players just because you’re so angry and so frustrated. There is a place for that, but the payoff on that has limited short-term returns. They have to be positioned well.”

One of those instances led to a big-time blowup in the locker room recently, one that turned some heads (and maybe led to some replacement costs).

“There may or may not have been some completely destroyed furniture in the locker room recently — a little Coach P, maybe. That’s just part of it,” Pope said. “It’s got to be for a purpose. It just can’t be an emotional release, that’s not the most productive thing. We try and make sure it’s always something that’s really, really personal and not just indulgent, like an indulgent emotional outburst. It’s not functional.”

When could that have been? Another fan asked Pope why he had ‘blood running down (his) wrist’ coming out of halftime at Ole Miss. He wouldn’t confirm if those two incidents were the same, but he did say Kentucky’s performance in Oxford did not live up to the program’s standard.

“You might be playing way too close attention, my friend. I can assure you there was — how do I put this? We have a really high standard here at the University of Kentucky,” Pope said. “Right now, we’re not living up to that standard. When things get emotional, we try and lean into the facts, because we don’t want to be emotionally belligerent. We understand the responsibility we have here, and it means a lot to us.

“We’re going to fight and scratch and claw to maintain the standard and to live up to what Kentucky basketball is, what it’s always been, and what we want it to be. It just means a lot. That’s probably as much as I’m appropriately allowed to say about that.”