“Kentucky vs. Georgia game was the worst officiated game I've ever seen”: College hoops fans present their verdict as NCAA analyst question referees
College basketball fans reacted to the officiating of Kentucky's game against Georgia as Rob Dauster, Randolph Childress and Kevin Sweeney pointed fingers at the referees. In the Jan. 20 episode of "The Field of 68: After Dark" podcast, Dauster noted several calls from recent games, saying that college basketball needs better ways to handle decision making.
Sweeney said that the referees need to be held accountable for poor officiating. Childress sympathized with the coaches, ideating the possibility of an extra referee to speed up the decision-making process.
Fans stormed the comment section to support the NCAA analysts' takes:
"The Kentucky vs. Georgia game was the worst officiated game I've ever seen.," a fan wrote.
"Any SEC game and especially the UK games have been absolutely horrible this year. I mean it’s not even funny any more," another user commented.
"Some dude literally tackled Amari Williams as he was reaching for a pass (UK had the ball), the dope standing behind them called Amari for the foul.," another fan wrote.
More fans chimed in to share their officiating experiences:
"Alabama took 39 foul shots !!!!! Kentucky takes 20? F'ing ridiculous!!!" a fan commented.
"First thing is stop hiring refs from the school of the blind . Look into linking refs with sports betting . The coaches are using the reviews for free timeout , that’s easy to see . Ky and Georgia was the worst in my 58 yrs ., another user wrote.
"Kentucky and Georgia game was the worst officiated game since Fox, Monk & Bam's team lost to UNC in the tourney.. but SEC is a str8 gauntlet regardless lol.. but u gotta call it both ways dude cmon," another fan commented.
Mark Pope refrains from blaming the officiating after Kentucky's loss to Georgia
Kentucky saw the charity stripe 19 times in the 82-69 loss to Georgia on Jan. 7. The Bulldogs went to the free throw line 38 times. However, Kentucky coach Mark Pope refused to blame the officiating for the outcome of the game, saying that their focus remains on being undistracted and concentrated on controllable factors of the game.
"Listen, that doesn’t have anything to do with this game, man," he said.
"We leave all that stuff. We’re working on the next play. We’re going to go control the stuff we need to control. And we can control enough factors in this game to win the game. That will always be true. So we refuse to be distracted by that."
Wildcats (14-4, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) lost its first ranked-game on Friday against No. 4 Alabama. The team will not play Vanderbilt on the road before the No. 6 Tennessee. UK then returns home for the biggest game of the season, hosting former coach John Calipari and Arkansas Razorbacks.