SEC: Tennessee vs Kentucky Game Thread

[tamme11]

Lighthouse I am curious to know what you thought of the charge call on Keldon before PJ hit the jumper, and the block call on Travis when the out official had a charge? I didnt see any response in the thread, but I just glanced though it. Thanks

And the moving screen on willams at the 4:47 mark. Same ref made a bunch of calls in the last 6:00 and everyone went Williams way????

[Lighthouse]

I appreciate the explanation. I don't think officiating cost us the game, but losing our best rebounder didn't help.

I hate that I know Doug Shows name. I shouldn't. I hate that I know how many fouls were called in the first half vs. the second. I shouldn't.

I get that the officiating is difficult and the camera often has a better angle than the official, but consistency from half to half, and the discipline to only call what you actually see isn't too much to ask. If rules are to matter, there needs to be predictable enforcement.

I want to respond to your post in order. First, I've met Doug Shows and he's as fair a man in officiating as I've ever met. He has a passion for the game and works very hard to get calls right. You, and most Kentucky fans know his name because he works a lot of UK games and believe it or not, Cal is OK with that.

Second, camera angles are hardly ever a better look than the official has. When an official is in position to see a play, nobody has a better look at the whole play than they do. Fans watch a game and concentrate on the ball. Officials are trained to know where the ball is but to concentrate on the players. When a whistle blows, the foul or violation has already happened and everything has changed by the time fans see whats going on.

We have no idea who the NCAA will assign to our games in the tournament, and they can come from anywhere. I hope we can enjoy the ride and not get all fired up about the stripes. It does us no good anyway and if I think they messed up, I will be the first to say so.

[Lighthouse]

Lighthouse I am curious to know what you thought of the charge call on Keldon before PJ hit the jumper, and the block call on Travis when the out official had a charge? I didnt see any response in the thread, but I just glanced though it. Thanks

Don, I'll be happy to give my opinion. I disagreed with the charge call on Johnson. But, there was contact and in my opinion a flop. It mattered most because PJ hit the 3, which made it hurt more.

On the block on Travis. I agreed with that call because I felt he moved into legal guarding position to late. Had he been a fraction earlier, it would have been a charge. As for the Trail official having it different, proper procedure was followed when he released the call to the official the play was going toward. On that type play, the Lead official nearly always has a better look.

Great questions. Thanks for asking.

[JFCats22]

I want to respond to your post in order. First, I've met Doug Shows and he's as fair a man in officiating as I've ever met. He has a passion for the game and works very hard to get calls right. You, and most Kentucky fans know his name because he works a lot of UK games and believe it or not, Cal is OK with that.

This is 1000% absolutely incorrect. I know for a fact Cal does not like Shows and does not want Shows anywhere near a UK game. Cal would rather have Higgins officiate a UK game than Shows.

Shows may be a nice guy and be passionate about basketball. However, it is clear he has an agenda when it comes to UK and Cal.

[Lighthouse]

And the moving screen on willams at the 4:47 mark. Same ref made a bunch of calls in the last 6:00 and everyone went Williams way????

Sorry. I don't remember that play and I don't have the film to look at.

[tamme11]

Sorry. I don't remember that play and I don't have the film to look at.

Its when he leans a whole body width to pick off Johmson.

[Joneslab]

Cal is still all over the officiating tonight on his radio show.

He's seen those .gifs of Travis's fourth and fifth, I would imagine.

[Spiritof96]

I want to respond to your post in order. First, I've met Doug Shows and he's as fair a man in officiating as I've ever met. He has a passion for the game and works very hard to get calls right. You, and most Kentucky fans know his name because he works a lot of UK games and believe it or not, Cal is OK with that.

Second, camera angles are hardly ever a better look than the official has. When an official is in position to see a play, nobody has a better look at the whole play than they do. Fans watch a game and concentrate on the ball. Officials are trained to know where the ball is but to concentrate on the players. When a whistle blows, the foul or violation has already happened and everything has changed by the time fans see whats going on.

We have no idea who the NCAA will assign to our games in the tournament, and they can come from anywhere. I hope we can enjoy the ride and not get all fired up about the stripes. It does us no good anyway and if I think they messed up, I will be the first to say so.

I know his name because he has jobbed UK in so many games against UT. He is a showboating wannabe.

and he’s on the take...

[Lighthouse]

I know his name because he has jobbed UK in so many games against UT. He is a showboating wannabe.

and he’s on the take...

You are so wrong. But it's your take, so go with it.

[Catatonic]

This is 1000% absolutely incorrect. I know for a fact Cal does not like Shows and does not want Shows anywhere near a UK game. Cal would rather have Higgins officiate a UK game than Shows.

He has the option to block one ref from officiating, right? And yet he never does.

[Dwight Schrute]

He's seen those .gifs of Travis's fourth and fifth, I would imagine.

That's the thing: we've all seen those gifs and can see with our own eyes. It was a nonsense call.

That whole second half was filled with blown calls and makeup calls.

[Joneslab]

Talking about something other than the officials for a moment.

We've seen late fades from Kentucky in more than a few games this year. Games where we appeared to have the game in hand, and then teams made runs against us late and we just panicked.

Happened against Seton Hall. Happened against Alabama in certain ways, as we just stopped playing after we got a second-half lead. Definitely happened against LSU at Rupp. Happened Saturday. That's four of our six losses where we seemed to have solid control of the game and then we just fumbled the ball around and couldn't get it in-bounds and lost three-point shooters and ended up getting beat. (It's happened in a few of our wins too.)

A major part of this is foul trouble. This team fouls a lot.

We're 60th in the nation in fouls. Last year we were 242nd.

If the fouls are spread around then it's not a terrible stat. In 2012 we were 9th in the nation, but we were getting fouls from different players. This year it's mostly been contained to Travis and Washington.

Anytime we're having to try to win without one of those guys, we usually struggle. Travis in particular really damages the team when he's out in crunch time, because you have to have the guy who grabs brutal rebounds in there when those rebounds go up.

[Catatonic]

This team doesn't handle a lead very well. If we're up 10 points and there's more than 30 seconds to go I have very little confidence in them to maintain it.

Part of it is the fouls, much of it is youth, but also it's the way a desperate opposition plays late in games against us. We don't handle a press very well, we don't handle a zone very well. We start grinding in ill conceived half court sets instead of doing what we do well, which is uptempo full court drives to the basket.

[Dwight Schrute]

We start grinding in ill conceived half court sets instead of doing what we do well, which is uptempo full court drives to the basket.

This has been a staple of Cal's tenure, unfortunately. It cost us a chance to go to the title game in 2015, and it nearly cost us the title in 2012. It cost us the game Saturday (horrid officiating also played a role, but we still had a chance). When we were driving the ball, we were the better team. When we started slowing it back down to milk the clock, Tennessee made their run and we panicked.

It's prevalent enough that makes me think it's a Cal thing.

[justford]

This team doesn't handle a lead very well. If we're up 10 points and there's more than 30 seconds to go I have very little confidence in them to maintain it.

Part of it is the fouls, much of it is youth, but also it's the way a desperate opposition plays late in games against us. We don't handle a press very well, we don't handle a zone very well. We start grinding in ill conceived half court sets instead of doing what we do well, which is uptempo full court drives to the basket.

One more thing to your list would be in bounding the ball.