Among the many differences that Kentucky fans are seeing in the transition from John Calipari to Mark Pope as head coach of the Wildcats is a notably calmer demeanor on the sideline.

Granted, the Cats have played only one game under Pope and they cruised to a stress-free 103-62 win over Wright State on Monday night at Rupp Arena, but the difference in the attitude toward the officials has been striking in both the opener and the two exhibition games.

Do not expect the new UK boss to be jousting with the "refs" quite as often as his notoriously vocal predecessor did.

Pope says he changed his approach to officials about 8-10 years ago when he started going to the referee symposium on the West Coast. Ever the learner, he wanted to know more about the sport from a referee's perspective.

"It's like two days and they sit in a room and they watch some of the most difficult clips they've faced from the last season preparing as their training session," he explained. "You sit there and you watch a block/charge called, for example, the low-hanging fruit example.

"They will watch it slow motion, watch it five times, watch it 10 times. They will take a poll on whether it was a block or charge. Invariably 150 people would raise their hand and say it was a block, and 149 people -- referees, these are usually the best referees in the world -- would call and say it's a charge."

Pope, who acknowledged that he did get "a couple" of technical fouls last season, has been able to manage his emotions better during the course of games since making visits to the symposium.

"I want our players to feel the same way that I do," he said. "And that is the referees actually have no power over whether we win or lose the game. The calls are really hard. If I can be disciplined and keep my focus on the game, I think it helps our players be disciplined and help their focus on the game.

"What we've done is all had a serious meeting with all the players and all the staff and we just agree that we are going to let (his wife) Leanne handle the refs, and we will just work on the game."

Big Blue Nation will have to wait and see if that patient approach stays in place as the No. 23 Cats are just six days away from a high-profile matchup with No. 7 Duke at the Champions Classic in Atlanta.