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Fayetteville Arkansas Bud Walton Arena (2-26-22)
It was going to be a tough ballgame regardless. Everyone knew this. What you don’t want to see as a player, coach, fan or anyone watching the game is watching SEC referees dictating the outcome of a game. The 2nd half of the UK, Arkansas game was a lesson in an officiating crew dictating the outcome of a game and that should never happen. EVER!
The refereeing crew for this game were, Ron Groover, Jason Baker, and UK fan favorite, Doug Shows. (Sarcasm intended). According to KSR, During the Calipari era, Kentucky holds a record of 46-16 with Shows on the floor. With Shows on the floor, his crews have called a whopping 38 technical fouls during the Calipari era alone according to KSR. Shows has been the referee in 3 of UK losses this season. Duke, Alabama & now Arkansas.
Looking at the numbers in the 2nd half, UK was called for 11 fouls and Arkansas, wait for it, 4. In a game with a lot of physical play, Arkansas was called for “4” total fouls in the 2nd half.
Please don’t think we are crying sour grapes because the Cats took a loss. Kentucky didn’t help themselves either. However, if you listened to the game on Sirius Radio, the game was commentated by ARKANSAS radio personnel. The commentators said multiple times in the second half that their beloved “Hogs” were getting every call. They acknowledged this was Arkansas’s game to lose since they were getting every whistle. Now, when have you heard a hometown radio crew admit their team was getting every call. That was all you needed to know about this game.
Oscar Tshiebwe again showed why he should be the player of the year, when he dropped in 30 points and pulled down 18 rebounds, 12 in the first half. UK failed to use him as an offensive weapon at critical times during the 2nd half of the game. Tshiebwe was virtually unstoppable inside the paint, but was passed over at times. Brookes took an ill advised 3 late instead of looking for Tshiebwe.
Another disturbing situation involved Kellan Grady. Grady took 3 shot attempts in 29:30 minutes. He failed to work to get open at times during the game with the exception of the only 3 Grady made. Coach Cal repeatedly said he told Grady to work away from the ball so Tshiebwe would have someone to look for on kickouts. The other part of the equation was other players failing to hit Grady when he was open. Grady looked like Dontaie Allen when he was on the court and not getting the ball.
Another bright spot was TYTY Washington & Sahvir Wheeler both getting to play for the first time in a while. Wheeler had 14 points and Washington had 10. UK as a team had 16 assists compared to only 12 turnovers, 8 of those were in the 2nd half.
UK missed an opportunity as all 5 of the top 5 ranked teams in the country, lost which is a missed opportunity as far as the NCAA Tournament seeding and also put them in a 3 way tie SEC with Tennessee and Arkansas instead of 2nd place outright and only a game behind 1st place Auburn
