Charles Barkley critiques Mark Pope amid Kentucky struggles: 'You can't just yell'

As Kentucky struggled against yet another power conference opponent on Saturday in a tilt with Indiana, broadcasters Charles Barkley and Dick Vitale dove into an interesting discussion about why things haven’t been working for the Wildcats. In particular, they discussed the role that coach Mark Pope has played.

Pope has been beside himself at times this year with his team, taking on a deadly serious tone at times and vowing that Kentucky would improve. So far there aren’t many results to show for it.

Kentucky trailed Indiana 39-32 at the half. And just before the half ended, Barkley opened up.

“I think as a coach, Dick Vermeil, one of my favorite people ever, he says, they asked him the second time around why he didn’t yell as much,” Barkley said while discussing Mark Pope. “He said, ‘I realized no matter how much I yelled they’re not going to play better. I’ve got to coach better, not yell better.’

“So I think coach Pope is in a very interesting situation. He’s got guys, they’re playing hard. Not playing well, but they’re playing hard. You just can’t yell. But they are playing hard.”

The issues are multiple for Kentucky. Barkley highlighted one way the team can improve.

Worth noting: Kentucky was 1-of-9 from 3-point range in the first half. Meanwhile, Mark Pope’s team boasted an edge just about everywhere except the shooting percentages.

“To me, if I’m Kentucky, I don’t feel good because they haven’t made threes and they’re still down seven,” Barkley said. “But they’ve got to play at a much faster pace.

“Their halfcourt offense is just one-on-one and taking a tough shot. They’ve got to find a way, and I think coach got to say, ‘We’re going to push the ball, push the ball, push the ball.’ That, to me, is what I would say at halftime if I was coach. Our halfcourt offense is not very good, we’re not a very good 3-point shooting team anyway. We’ve got to find the way to speed the tempo up.”

Could Mark Pope take that advice and see it pay dividends in the second half? We’ll have to wait and see.

Vitale also chimed in with his thoughts. To him, Mark Pope is just lacking in the personnel department.

“I think when I look at Kentucky, they don’t have that superstar that normally you see they have that can bail the team out,” Vitale said. “I thought (Otega) Oweh would be that kind of player, but he hasn’t been that kind of player this year. He’s a good player, very good player. But not the superstar talent. Kentucky’s had, over the years, some incredible players.”