Calipari is not a good coach. His teams are ill-prepared, he uses poor line-ups, and his teams regularly find themselves trailing from the outset (and then late), subjecting themselves to the whims of crooked/incompetent officials.
One of the reasons these upsets are still somewhat “rare” across the sport is that underdogs tend to get tight in these close/late situations, while more talented, deeper teams tend to make plays late; and sometimes, officials even bail out the favorite with a timely call (see Kansas last night), and at the end of the day, the blue-blooded favorite pulls out the victory.
For KY, this is no longer the case. We won’t go back in history and discuss the big official-driven momentum swing late in the St. Peter’s game or the horrendous officiating in the K State game last year. Instead, we will just look at a few key calls/items from the last 10 minutes of last night’s game.
Score is 57-52 as the clock drops below 9:00. Kentucky is having a good defensive possession. Watts has it in the corner for a tough turnaround with 2.5 on the shot clock. However, the ref bails out Watts with a foul on Dillingham. Announcer, “what a terrible foul!”
Replay reveals that there is no foul.
Kentucky, a poor defensive team all season has a solid defensive possession at a critical juncture and the refs bail out the underdog.
Watts makes them both. 59-52.
67-65 as the clock drops below 4:00, Conway gets the ball at the top of the key and looks scared. He arguably travels as he makes his move to the basket. The ref blows his whistle and Mitchell makes the travel signal because he knows he didn’t touch the guy.
Nah. Ref signals foul on the floor and it’s so obviously not on Mitchell that the giddy announcer screams gleefully, “foul on Wagner!”
Wagner is no longer anywhere near the play.
Mitchell shakes his head and we go to break. The foul is on him.
No replay.
After the break, Conway hits 2 free throws.
69-65.
Refs handed Oakland two points when Conway did nothing except for maybe travel.
Next possession, still 69-65, Gohlke comes off the screen with Sheppard on him. He misses the shot and it’s a foul on Sheppard with 3:33 left.
Replay (this time) shows Gohlke kick his leg out and he clearly kicks Sheppard in the shin, which is why he fell down. This is what *likely* led to the foul call.
Replay also appears to show Sheppard’s right pinkie finger making contact with Gohlke’s right pinkie. Announcer, “that’s a foul!”
If an offensive foul and defensive foul simultaneously occur, what is the correct call?
Three shots for Oakland. Gohlke makes 2. 71-65.
75-71, Dillnghamn makes a 3 and the ball goes through the net at 1:05 (75-74). He appears to get fouled on the shot and Cal is flipping out on the sidelines and is heading toward the other end, seemingly yelling at the official.
The ball bounces and the clock ticks. And the clock ticks.
At 58 seconds (7 full seconds after the ball goes through the net), an Oakland player picks up the ball and flips it to the ref (over the last year, this has become one of my number one basketball gripes, watching Travel basketball players do this and refs allowing it - and coaches NEVER saying or doing anything about it). Ref flips it to Oakland player at 56.5 and he inbounds in 3 seconds. 12 seconds from the time the ball went through the net and Oakland inbounding the ball. That’s easily one possession worth of time in what is a close game late.
(Ref can blow it dead when Oakland doesn’t secure the ball quickly, instead, he aids their effort to burn clock by accepting the pass and passing the ball to the Oakland player).
Now, KY had 3 timeouts. It would not have been irrational for Cal to call time out, but he was distracted from what was happening because he was running away from the action and screaming at the ref instead of coaching his team.
And that’s all I care to discuss. Kentucky still had a chance after this, but they were mostly hapless.
I don’t like John Calipari. I don’t even watch many UK games anymore.
But, I do know basketball. And I know how refs manipulate games. You can go back and watch a 40 year old game and see the same stuff.
Get as justifiably mad as you want about a lazy, overpaid coach and an underperforming roster.
But please, please make sure you process the steps refs happily take to help yoh blow a big game.
