I think I understand Tim Floyd’s pain after watching Kentucky/Vanderbilt last night. The game was filled with whistles and stops because, evidently, last night was the night the SEC sent an edict telling their officials to test their new whistle peas. When a game features 63 free throws and 49 foul calls in 40 minutes, you are, as a referee, interfering with the game — especially when a large majority of those calls are of the off-the-ball physicality that goes on in, oh, just about every basketball game played on the planet.

Sour grapes? No, because Kentucky deserved to lose last night. It’s hard for a team to win when only one player is a legitimate threat to score, and that’s all the Wildcats had to work with as Patrick Patterson missed another game because of an ankle injury. However, that does not take away from the officiating ineptitude on display in Nashville.

Like Matt Jones said, it was bizarre to watch. He wasn’t the only one either. Courier-Journal blogger Chris Diggs offers this perspective:

Kentucky went into a difficult place last night and just got beat. I hate to bring up the officiating because it is so easy to shift the blame, but this was one of the worst officiated games I have seen in a long time. Every touch was a whistle…

And Tony Greene attacked again, giving Gillispie his second technical of the year. As bad as the officiating was, I was wanting Gillispie to just get thrown out and t least get a point across that these referees were horrendous. He should have gone all Tim Floyd on them. I would have stood in applause for that.

It looks like another case where the officials decided they too were apart of the game and nothing was going to interfere with their duty of calling every off-the-ball foul they could, while helping preserve Vanderbilt’s strange home court advantage for at least another year. Speaking of Tim Floyd, I too would’ve enjoyed seeing Billy Gillispie go after their ineptitude like this:

When officials thrust themselves into a game that prominently, they deserved to be shown up like that. I know, I know. That’s the “sore loser” way out, but I’m not a USC fan, and yet, I still agree with Tim Floyd’s reaction for this sole reason: If the conferences are too cowardly to demand better from their referees, then using other methods to bring attention to the situation becomes necessary.

At least to me.

And yes, I agree with Chris Diggs. If Gillispie rushed the officials like Floyd did, I would have clapped as well.

Tags: Bad Referees, Bubble Teams, Kentucky Wildcats, SEC Basketball, Vanderbilt Commodores

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