Mark Pope hilariously pokes fun at viral announcer blunder
02/13/2025 04:06 PM
Coaches and now announcers are falling victim to a viral joke about the SEC being .500 in basketball conference play. It’s the best conference in basketball this year, and when some people heard that stat, they failed to realize that it is quite literally impossible for a conference to not be .500 in conference play. There is a winner and a loser in every game. A reporter tried to bait Kentucky basketball head coach Mark Pope into falling for it on Thursday, but he was ready.
“Coach, everybody talks about the SEC being the best conference in college basketball, but the conference is just .500 since conference play started,” a reporter said, according to an article from On3. “What do you make of that?”
Mark Pope immediately recognized the joke, started smiling, and played along.
“I think it's been a really disappointing start to conference play,” Pope said jokingly. “I feel like we should, you know, I feel like we're not living up to the expectations, just being at .500 as a conference. I just, you know, I'm kind of looking around at the other programs in the league like, 'Guys, we've got to pick this up. This is embarrassing.' And so we'll find a way. I believe in this league. I think we definitely have an upside and we're going to work really hard to get there.”
Before the reporter tried to bait Pope, ESPN announcer Karl Ravech fell victim to the stat while calling Tuesday’s Alabama-Texas game.
“We know how dominant they were in the non-conference part of the season, the SEC,” Ravech said. “They were 185-23. Since January 4, into Tuesday, the SEC teams are 82-82. It's not as if one team or two teams or three — they're 82-82. There's been no ability pull away, there's no dominant group of teams.”
Ravech tried to play it off the next day as if he knew what he was talking about, but it was pretty clear that wasn’t the case.
“Just landed and see X is on fire,” Ravech said in a post. “Simple explanation. Tongue in cheek 82-82 record was to illustrate any night either team can win and one will. Clearly very poor execution on my part. It is amazing that Alabama/Auburn have only lost once in such a great conference. That's all.”
Karl Ravech wasn’t the first person to fall victim to the stat. Rhode Island head coach Archie Miller was first.
“I heard somebody say the other day like the SEC's the best league in the country,” Miller said earlier this season. “But in all games they're like 54-54. Somebody said that. I don't know if that's even accurate, but like do you know how hard it is in every league to win? It's just hard to win any game.”
Mark Pope was not going to be the next college basketball personality to fall victim to the simple yet deceiving joke.
The post Mark Pope hilariously pokes fun at viral announcer blunder appeared first on ClutchPoints.
