JAMIE LUCKIE FACT SHEET
As I write, it is the day after our Sweet Sixteen loss to Kansas State on March 22, 2018. This post is not intended to be a “blame the ref” post, just a fact sheet of Jamie Luckie’s record vs. Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament. I think we can all agree that the game was ugly to watch. It reminded us of this season’s loss to South Carolina. And the 2010 Elite Eight heart breaker to West Virginia. It should, because Jamie Luckie was also on the whistle for those games. The South Carolina game had a Luckie-officiated-season high 59 fouls. 2010 WVU had 49. Last night, 51. In another Luckie-officiated game this season, there were 52 fouls in Villanova vs. UT.
Without re-watching the entire game yet, my initial reaction is that it’s
not like the Higgins-officiated games of 2011, 2015 (+ Sirmons) or 2017 (+ Kimble) where the whistle was one-sided to our opponent’s favor. The Sweet Sixteen last night seemed awfully ugly for both sides. There were numerous comments online about how rough it was being called at first. The problem becomes when all the ticky-tack stuff is called most of the game and then let go in the final few minutes. The problem is when it comes down to the final minute – even seconds in this case – that there are always unnecessary “what ifs” left in its wake.
[It should also be noted that Jamie Luckie was on the whistle in the notorious matchup between West Virginia and Kansas this season, with a free throw disparity of Kansas getting to the line 35 times versus WVU’s 2. Bob Huggins was reprimanded for criticizing the officiating crew, which also included John Higgins and Keith Kimble (who both worked our Elite Eight vs. UNC last year). See:
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game?gameId=400989189 for more. He also officiated the very odd game between Virginia and Louisville on 3-1-18, where Louisville lost after having a 4 point lead in the final second:
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/playbyplay?gameId=400986307 Virginia did not lose any games this season that Luckie officiated, nor did Duke].
Obviously, Kentucky had a great chance to win the game.
What if we’d made more free throws? What if we had less turnovers? What if we made different decisions in the final seconds? What if we hadn’t started the game down 13-1? Why did we wait ‘til 16:33 to take a Time Out to try and stop K-State’s momentum? What if we’d had the early game? We didn’t do well this year in games with a 9pm or later tip off, going 3-5 (http://ukathletics.com/schedule.aspx?schedule=57 ). Why does our staff not show players much film of opponents, but others (e.g., Wisconsin, Kansas State) do? Why does the final game tape of a season not get watched, when the ending has been similar so many times? There are plenty of other Threads discussing those issues and more; this Thread is about how Jamie Luckie has called Kentucky games. I’m not here to debate those issues, we’ll really never know the answers. So we had our chances. But that shouldn’t stop us from questioning various aspects like officiating, when it most certainly has an impact on the game. Like Cal said last year, “It’s too big of a game for this!”
Here’s an interesting article with one perspective on why there’s so many fouls, yet some of the reasoning (higher scoring) tends to backfire in the type of game we saw last night:
https://m.herosports.com/news/college-basketball-officiating-all-time-low
For live reactions during the Sweet Sixteen game on 3-22-18, here’s the Game Thread:
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/threads/official-game-thread.262944/ Here’s the ESPN play-by-play, recap and stats:
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/playbyplay?gameId=401025877 Those following live blogs and social media feeds know that there was general consternation at how the game was being called, on both sides.
Here’s Luckie’s record vs. UK, thanks to JP Scott:
http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/Officials/Jamie_Luckie.html While we are 21-9 overall, in the NCAA Tournament (2010 X 2, 2011, 2012, 2018), we are 3-2. The wins have been in the round of 64 (1) or 32 (2), and the losses have been in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight.
Here’s Luckie’s schedule for this and previous seasons (the site will likely take you to a main page, click NCAA men’s basketball and then find officials and then choose his name. Seasons will be in a drop down menu, the one most leftward at the top. You have a few free page views, private browsing recommended):
https://natstat.com/mbb/officials/jamie-luckie
Here’s a few clips and comments from the game (I acknowledge some weren’t called by Luckie):
Look at the feet of K-State #20 on the Kevin Knox “charge”!
Those 2 points were taken away and a foul was given to Knox.
Another “foul” on Hami:
Rex Chapman live tweeted during the game and was livid. Due to foul language (pardon the pun), I won’t post his all his comments, but here’s a few:
Here’s some interesting stats:
Luckie also officiated the 2010 WVU game.
Luckie also officiated the 2010 WVU game.
As noted above, Luckie officiated our 2010 Elite Eight loss to West Virginia. Here’s the play-by-play, stats and recap:
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/playbyplay?gameId=300860096
Here’s the game video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F0YSYzD5dA
Here’s a video, cued to the technical on Deandre Liggins, simply for pointing out that a WVU player walked:
https://youtu.be/5F0YSYzD5dA?t=32m15s
How many of us were reminded last night of the similarities to WVU in 2010? Both games could be described in the same way.
When you call 51 fouls in a 40 minute game, that’s nearly 1.3 per minute on average. That would make it hard for any team to have a flow or gain momentum. It’s common knowledge that Luckie officiates these types of games, it’s his M.O., with an abnormally high amount of fouls called compared to other officials. The games are not pleasant to watch and those he officiates often resemble one another in their ugliness. Normally efficient shooting teams can get completely disrupted. I could post article after article about games he’s officiated and fan bases that have taken issue with his style. I didn’t post this to bash him as a person, or to lay the blame for our loss solely on him, but rather to ask why the NCAA rewards such a known pattern with high level games? One would think they would want good, fair and exciting games for the players who have worked so hard to reach that moment. Instead, they get a slugfest that comes down to the final moments, rather than a fun basketball game.
