Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky coaches, players and fans were not the only ones upset with officiating in Saturday’s UK-Auburn game.
Auburn coach Steven Pearl was not thrilled, either.
A second-chance layup from Elyjah Freeman with 1.2 seconds left on the game clock enabled Auburn to win 75-74 and hand UK a rare third straight loss.
That play was set up when Colin Chandler was called for an offensive foul for shoving Auburn’s Kevin Overton while trying to receive an in-bounds pass from Otega Oweh. Both players were fighting for position when Overton went down and got the call that put Auburn in position to win.
“K.O.’s in a stance. K.O.’s back is to me, so I didn’t see the play,” Pearl said after the game. “But it looked like (Chandler) extended his arms, and we got the offensive foul, so we were able to get the ball back and did a great job of getting an inside touch so we could at least have the opportunity to get an offensive rebound.”
Obviously Kentucky coach Mark Pope and UK fans had a different view of that play. However, the officiating was odd at times. Auburn was in the bonus midway through the first half, but the game ended with 19 fouls against UK and 14 against Auburn. Kentucky was 17 of 17 at the foul line and Auburn 20 of 24.
“I thought there was a foul on every single possession the first five minutes of the game,” Pearl said. “I think the officials tried to let both teams play through it.
“For every foul was called on both ends, it would have been, you know, both teams would have shot 50 free throws. A lot of physicality on both ends. I thought they were holding us on every single-entry pass. I think it works both ways,” Pearl said.
“A very physical game and I thought, for the most part, our guys did a pretty good job of handling it. And I told them, don’t ask for whistles in this game because obviously that’s not how they’re calling it right now.
“You got to adjust to what the officials are doing, and they already have an impossible job as it is. Our guys did a decent job of hanging in there and trying to play through contact.”
