Mark Pope refuses to use free throw differential as an excuse for Kentucky’s loss to Georgia

If you made it through the 2.5-hour slugfest that was Kentucky’s 82-69 loss to Georgia, chances are you complained at least a few times about the officiating. We try not to do it too much here at KentuckySportsRadio.com these days, but even the most patient fan should be done by tonight.

Forty-five fouls were called, with Georgia going to the line twice as often as Kentucky. The Bulldogs were 29-38 from the charity stripe to Kentucky’s 15-19 mark. Nine times the referees went to the monitor to review calls, making it nearly impossible for the game to achieve any kind of flow, especially in the second half. Mark Pope was asked about the disparity in free throws after the game and refused to use it as an excuse for his team’s performance.

“Look, this has nothing to do with this game. We’re leaving all that behind. We’re working on the next play. We’ve got to control the things we can 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 it.”

It’s exactly the type of reaction you’d expect from Pope, who attended a refereeing symposium several years ago to gain a better understanding of the profession. Graduate forward Andrew Carrone of four Wildcats with four errors tonight, didn’t blame pitching for the loss, but admitted the constant stoppage took away some of the Cats’ energy.

“I felt at times that tonight we got — you know, coach talks about energy all the time, but our energy was drained from bad calls and things like that, some things that we can’t control necessarily took away from our effort, Carr said in his postgame conversation with Goose Givens.

Kentucky’s frontcourt was hit particularly hard by foul trouble, with Amari Williams picking up his fourth foul just three minutes into the second half and Carr picking up his fourth with 11:22 left. Carr believes the Cats’ frustration on defense led to some mistakes, something they will need to clean up as SEC play continues.

“I just think a lot of them came off offensive rebounds and they kind of got to the line like that. And then also just, you know, I think just line drives, do a better job with the on-ball defense, to be able to move your feet and I think we swipe down on the ball too much as a last ditch effort.

“And as a referee, any movement of the arm down, you’re just going to call a foul, especially when we’re on the road. So I think for us, we’re a lot more disciplined in trusting our verticality and trusting what we’ve been talking about all year, all summer, and doing a better job of trying to continue without fouling.”

They’ll get another opportunity Saturday at No. 1 Mississippi State. 14.

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