Higgins Missed Calls Thread 2005-2017

[Wildcat Sheli]

Higgins Post-Season Observations since 2011

Based on the information found at https://phillyref.com/basketball/postseasonmen.html, here are some stats on Higgins’ post-season games since 2011. This is not a complete list of NCAA tournament games called since 2011 (and I'm aware of the games prior to 2011), but I included teams with more than one game he had called in the NCAA tournament since 2011. I’m posting without comment, I just find the stats interesting.


Arizona: 3-0

Wisconsin: 3-0

UConn: 3-0

Syracuse: 3-1

Wichita State: 2-0

Kansas: 1-1

North Carolina: 1-1

Florida: 1-1

Gonzaga 1-1

Kentucky: 0-3

Virginia: 0-2


The SEC (UK, Vanderbilt, Florida, UT, South Carolina): 2-6
(edited after '17 Final Four)

 

[howercat]

Didn't see on here, but the foul on Hawkins on Maye at 2:41 in the game was a crock of shi. Both players had their arms interlocked pushing on each other and Higgins comes in and calls a foul on Hawkins. It's at best a no call. Could have been a call on Maye just as easy. Those 2 free throws put Carolina up 3. It was a huge call. Horrible.

 

[barryn2000]

There have been a number of John Higgins Threads already posted so far. I thought it might be good to have a dedicated Thread to post his missed calls.

First, a little background. . . .

Here’s his record officiating Kentucky games: http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/Officials/John_Higgins.html

Would like to have his record vs Cal at UMass and Memphis. There’s another Thread about that (https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/higgins-vs-cal-at-umass-memphis.232113/).

Here’s some of the recent Threads on this board related to Higgins:
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/john-higgins-ref-for-tomorrow.231561/
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/tubbys-2005-loss-higgins.232114/
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/decoursy-sporting-news-on-officiating-and-higgins.232051/
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/cal-calls-out-officials.231957/
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/tom-leach-pounding-the-refs.232080/
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/dear-matt-jones.232079/
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/if-unc-wins-the-title-give-john-higgins.232075/
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/...st-ky-and-terrible-seeding-towards-uk.231978/
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/worst-calls-of-the-game.231889/
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/...ly-called-one-technical-in-7-uk-games.231712/
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/...icials-for-tonights-game.231093/#post-5781208

To clear up a few misconceptions: No, he did not call a technical in every UK game he officiated. No, we have not lost every game he officiated. No, he is not related to Ellen Calipari (although that is her maiden name. If all else fails, we could try using that to disqualify him from officiating any future UK games:>). No, he is not related to the famous now-retired referee Tim Higgins. {But he does have a brother named Tim, who also played basketball and was a referee http://www.lopers.com/news/2015/6/8/MBB_0608153516.aspx and http://lopers.com/hof.aspx?hof=206&path=&kiosk=}

But it IS TRUE that we have never won an Elite Eight or Final Four Game that he has officiated. Even the UCLA regular season game he officiated in December had questionable calls. If we win that game, our seeding might have been different.

Here’s an old radio interview where he casually dismisses non-reviewable missed calls: http://kxno.iheart.com/onair/the-morning-rush-52935/referee-john-higgins-talks-dunks-his-14445856/

Here’s a couple feature stories on him:
http://netnebraska.org/article/news/1067762/nebraska-basketball-referee-has-earned-his-stripes
http://www.si.com/college-basketbal...recognized-referee-well-traveled-john-higgins

Some of our biggest tournament losses were games he officiated:
2005 Double Overtime to Michigan State
2011 Final Four loss to UConn
2015 Final Four loss to Wisconsin
2017 Elite Eight to UNC (we were ranked #5 and they were #6 and #8, we beat them, yet we were the #2 Seed to their #1)

Every one of those losses were controversial and he is a common denominator. These were games where a “little” call –or no-call—here or there made a big difference.

If anyone has video clips or still shots of missed calls, let’s post them here!

Now....^^this is how you do it people. You build a case, share and make it go viral. You find others outside UK with similar experiences and gather consensus and pressure the NCAA.

 

[SkydogWildcat]

fascinating stuff- but the fact is that somehow he scored higher than most all of the refs in the tourney. Mind boggling how that could be- must be a tremendous shortage of quality refs in college Bball.

This would be extremely time consuming , but to have an independent arbiter, (someone who really knew how to "score" these refs), to go back and grade all the refs in the sweet 16 and elite 8 games and then post the results.

The fact that Higgins was able to presumably "grade" higher then almost all the other tourney refs and garner the honor of handling the Final 4 is stunning. Almost beyond belief. Is this data posted from NCAA?

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

We've had some interesting observations on a dedicated Thread to Tubby's 2005 Double OT loss to Michigan State that Higgins officiated: https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/tubbys-2005-loss-higgins.232114/

Some of the same trends were seen in 2005 that were seen on Sunday's game, with Rondo getting into very early foul trouble.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Wanted to share some info from our Higgins vs Cal at Memphis & UMass Thread (https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/higgins-vs-cal-at-umass-memphis.232113/)


Higgins officiated Cal's last loss in the FedEx Forum as the Memphis coach. It was to Syracuse on 12/20/08, 72-65. Their overall record was 33-4. It was their only home loss of that season.
http://stats.gotigersgo.com/sports/m-baskbl/2008-2009/mem1220.html

If anyone knows how to access the game video, let us know so it can get posted.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Found this old article lamenting Big 12 officiating. Here's a quote, "Tim Higgins is now retired though, but don’t worry- a familiar face has taken his place: John Higgins. We’ve seen him before, but he never seemed this bad. He’s just one of many that need to go though."
https://hailwv.com/2013/01/29/officials-make-mockery-of-game/

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

There was good discussion yesterday about Seth Greenberg's comments regarding Higgins. (See https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/...as-is-no-secret-seth-greenberg-agrees.232338/ and https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/seth-greenberg-voice-of-reason.232368/)

Hopefully, someone will post the audio!

Wanted to pass on an interview with Matt Jones where he talks about what's been going on, defends UK fans and acknowledges what Greenberg said about it being well known in coaching circles that Higgins and Cal do not get along. It's short, starting around the 2:11 mark (especially at 4:42 mark): http://kentuckysportsradio.com/basketball-2/must-listen-of-the-day-matt-jones-vs-paul-kuharsky/

Please post any video clips or screenshots of Higgins' bad or no-calls.

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

There was good discussion yesterday about Seth Greenberg's comments regarding Higgins. (See https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/...as-is-no-secret-seth-greenberg-agrees.232338/ and https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/seth-greenberg-voice-of-reason.232368/)

Hopefully, someone will post the audio!

Wanted to pass on an interview with Matt Jones where he talks about what's been going on, defends UK fans and acknowledges what Greenberg said about it being well known in coaching circles that Higgins "hates" Cal. It's short, starting around the 2:11 mark (especially at 4:42 mark): http://kentuckysportsradio.com/basketball-2/must-listen-of-the-day-matt-jones-vs-paul-kuharsky/

Let's keep building our case. Please post any video clips or screenshots of Higgins' bad or no-calls.

That segment was hilarious; I believe Matt owned that turd. I would also like to take credit for pointing Matt to the Seth Greenberg segment on College Sports Channel 84 on Sirius where Seth acknowledged the fact that it's known that Higgins and Cal have a hate/hate relationship, and that personal vendetta spawns terrible calls in every game he calls for UK and Cal.

It's not even a question for me any longer. After much research and through my own eye sight, I believe 100% that Higgins has a personal bias for Cal and UK, and this leads directly to poor calls against us, and ultimately costing us victories in at least three tournament games (UCONN, Wisconsin, and UNC). It's a shame really, as the kids are the ones who are most affected. I'm just a guy watching games, so no real harm done to me. But the kids on the court are payimg the consequences for a bitter hack of a ref who can't be objective due to his own low self esteem.

 

[Cowtown Cat]

That segment was hilarious; I believe Matt owned that turd. I would also like to take credit for pointing Matt to the Seth Greenberg segment on College Sports Channel 84 on Sirius where Seth acknowledged the fact that it's known that Higgins and Cal have a hate/hate relationship, and that personal vendetta spawns terrible calls in every game he calls for UK and Cal.

It's not even a question for me any longer. After much research and through my own eye sight, I believe 100% that Higgins has a personal bias for Cal and UK, and this leads directly to poor calls against us, and ultimately costing us victories in at least three tournament games (UCONN, Wisconsin, and UNC). It's a shame really, as the kids are the ones who are most affected. I'm just a guy watching games, so no real harm done to me. But the kids on the court are payimg the consequences for a bitter hack of a ref who can't be objective due to his own low self esteem.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

One game we haven’t talked much about, a win, was our game against Eastern KY in the first round of the NCAA tournament on March 17, 2005. EKU was coached by our own Travis Ford. Here’s a synopsis of the game, with a Cat’s Pause article: http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/Games/20050317EasternKentucky.html

We were a 2 Seed and they were a 15. The score was 72-64, an 8 point victory. The video is over at UK Basketball Live.

Here's an old pic from that game:

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Here's the video of the 2011 Final Four game between Kentucky and UConn:

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

Here's the video of the 2011 Final Four game between Kentucky and UConn:

View embedded media

Ugh. I'm gonna get pissed watching this.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Here's the video of our win vs. Cornell in the 2010 Sweet Sixteen. Although we won the game with a final score of 62-45, it was only a 9 point game with 1:11 to go. As you know, we met West Virginia in the next game.

Will post more comments later, but wanted to go ahead and post the video. Some of the calls were so bad Enberg and Bilas couldn't help but call the officials out. At one point (around 1:05:15 of the video), Bilas keeps saying that it was "a horrible call, impossible to miss" when someone intentionally fouled Boogie.

 

[BigBlueManSouthCentralKY]

All the research, Higgins may be playing Robin Hood?

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Watch Bobby Hurley's reaction as Higgins ejects him in this 2016 Arizona-Arizona St game (article here: https://www.si.com/college-basketba...ate-pac-12-bobby-hurley-ejection-john-higgins also:
http://www.azcentral.com/story/spor...ley-throw-shade-arizona-asu-referee/78298876/)

 

[Cardsstink]

I haven't read the thread, but did Higgins call the foul on Poythress when the UCONN guy flopped? That was a CRITICAL call in the Championship game.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

I haven't read the thread, but did Higgins call the foul on Poythress when the UCONN guy flopped? That was a CRITICAL call in the Championship game.

Higgins did not officiate our 2014 Championship Game. But he did call the 2011 Final Four against UConn.

 

[Cardsstink]

Higgins did not officiate our 2014 Championship Game. But he did call the 2011 Final Four against UConn.

Brandon Knight killed us in that game. I was there and watched Lamb before the game and before the 2nd half drain three after three in warmups in the dome. But Knight would not stop shooting and Lamb got few chances.

 

[UKBrassowTipIN]

This is getting ridiculous. You could play the game back in slow motion and catch every single missed call. You know what you end up with.

Brad Calipari playing Stilman White 1 on 1 for the game.

Again that's not the point. The point is consistency. What makes you decide to call little touch fouls then ignore them other times. What makes you call one half one way then just change it up another half. Why come out and just gave a complete focus on one thing but ignore others. Why even bother making foul calls away from the ball that don't affect the play? This is the bigger issue. Notice in some games refs just decide to come our and call 50 fouls even though team A and B don't avg that many, then other games not. Is that doing anything to improve the game?

 

[UKBrassowTipIN]

It's not just UK. Remember this no call during the WVU-Duke 2010 Final Four game where De'Sean Butler was injured. You can even hear Bob Huggins call him out on it to his face.

I was just saying in another thread...wvu fans have completely been on our side in tgis...they HATE Higgins as they see him all the time in the big12.

Also off topic, I know De'sean personally. He's a great guy. That injure pretty much hindered his career. He still plays overseas, but it cost him draft position to make some more money potentially.

 

[UKBrassowTipIN]

fascinating stuff- but the fact is that somehow he scored higher than most all of the refs in the tourney. Mind boggling how that could be- must be a tremendous shortage of quality refs in college Bball.

This would be extremely time consuming , but to have an independent arbiter, (someone who really knew how to "score" these refs), to go back and grade all the refs in the sweet 16 and elite 8 games and then post the results.

The fact that Higgins was able to presumably "grade" higher then almost all the other tourney refs and garner the honor of handling the Final 4 is stunning. Almost beyond belief. Is this data posted from NCAA?

Good ole boy network. He worked over 100 games this year..they just reward him bc he works so many..doesnt really matter his performance

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Dick Gabriel of the Big Blue Insider reports that a trustworthy source informed him that the referees for our game vs UNC were spoken to by higher NCAA authorities at halftime and told they needed to start calling it better. Here's the Podcast: http://bigblueinsider.com/2017/03/march-29th-podcast-with-mike-pratt/. He talks about this beginning around the 5:30 mark.

What does this say about the integrity of our game vs UNC? It's not fair to call a terrible half and hope the other team can overcome the inconsistencies---not when you've affected their psyche, style of play and gotten them in foul trouble! And to think we were tied with less than 1 second to go. Like Cal said, "It's amazing our team had a chance!"

The BBN needs to know about this!

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Here's another reaction after Sunday's game from a former player. Chuck Hayes was part of that 2005 heartbreaker.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

We've posted a few of our former UK player's reactions to Sunday's UK-UNC game. Here's Karl Anthony Towns' reaction. As we all know, he played in the 2015 heartbreaker to Wisconsin.

 

[barryn2000]

Does Higgins hate Vandy more than UK?

2/28/2017 Vanderbilt Commodores vs. Kentucky Wildcats Lexington, KY
38 - fouls called
13 - UK
25 - Vandy
Dif - 12
Officials: Anthony Jordan, John Higgins, Jamie Luckie

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) Malik Monk scored 20 points in the second half, including 10 in the final 3:40, as No. 9 Kentucky rallied from a 13-point deficit and held off Vanderbilt 73-67 on Tuesday night to clinch a share of the Southeastern Conference regular season title.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Does Higgins hate Vandy more than UK?

Don't know about motives and not judging them. Did you see that game? Here's the play-by-play: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/playbyplay?gameId=400910701

Cal's press conference is here: http://www.coachcal.com/43678/2017/02/coach-cals-post-vanderbilt-presser-3/ He talks about the technical foul he got around the 4:58 mark, saying he had to protect his guys.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

We’ve talked a bit about the UK vs Michigan State 2005 Double Overtime Elite Eight Loss over at a dedicated Thread (https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/tubbys-2005-loss-higgins.232114/), but wanted to share the video here. Here’s stats and a Cats Pause article: http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/Games/20050327MichiganState.html

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

This is an interesting article where Cal's friend WVU Coach Bob Huggins advocates for referee reform; Higgins is mentioned as an example: http://westvirginia.247sports.com/Bolt/Huggins-Likes-Centralizing-Evaluating-Referees-51156677

Here's another article also alluding to Higgins' workload: http://www.backingthepack.com/2016/...-east-alliance-college-basketball-officiating

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Wishing SEC team South Carolina well in the Final Four. Here's an old pic of Coach Martin when he coached at Kansas St. Coach Martin was an assistant--and is a dear friend--to Bob Huggins at Cincinnati and Kansas State before becoming head coach there (we've previously discussed Bob Huggins is a dear friend of Cal and also has issues with Higgins).

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Real Time Reactions #1
This is just a sampling of the real-time reactions on Twitter to our Elite Eight Game with UNC by various media, UK fan site reporters, fans, former players and parody accounts. I can only post 5 at a time, so this is #1.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Real Time Reactions #2

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Real Time Reactions #3

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Real Time Reactions #4

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Real Time Reactions #5

It’s a sad day when you have to be “15 points better” than the actual score just to win. Former UK player Jon Hood should know:

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

UK vs. UNC, Elite Eight, March 26, 2017

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

UK vs. Wisconsin, Final Four, April 4, 2015
It haunts us all. Officiated by Verne Harris, Doug Sirmons and John Higgins. Here’s the play-by-play: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/playbyplay?gameId=400787769

 

[UKCatnNC]

fascinating stuff- but the fact is that somehow he scored higher than most all of the refs in the tourney. Mind boggling how that could be- must be a tremendous shortage of quality refs in college Bball.

This would be extremely time consuming , but to have an independent arbiter, (someone who really knew how to "score" these refs), to go back and grade all the refs in the sweet 16 and elite 8 games and then post the results.

The fact that Higgins was able to presumably "grade" higher then almost all the other tourney refs and garner the honor of handling the Final 4 is stunning. Almost beyond belief. Is this data posted from NCAA?

It matters depending on who does the rating. GO CATS!!

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

UK vs. Wisconsin, Final Four, April 4, 2015
It haunts us all. Officiated by Verne Harris, Doug Sirmons and John Higgins. Here’s the play-by-play: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/playbyplay?gameId=400787769

View embedded media

Good Lord, that shot clock violation. Raftery was giddy that they missed it and couldn't look at a replay.

 

[Wildcat Sheli]

Here’s the audio of Tom Leach’s Show from the morning after the game:

http://www.tomleachky.com/media/view/974


He talks about the Officiating, Higgins in particular, beginning around 5:58 and also the 19 minute marks. For someone who has called so many games, to make such bold comments is very telling indeed.