Referees miss blatant elbow by Kentucky to cost Arkansas a chance at the upset

The Kentucky Wildcats escaped an upset bid by the Arkansas Razorbacks thanks to a little help to a missed call at the end of the game.

Things looked bleak for the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday night as they welcomed the 14-13 Arkansas Razorbacks to the Rupp Arena. A game the No. 4 team should roll, they went into halftime down 39-28. Kentucky ended up coming back to win with a big second half but got some help from the officials with two seconds left and up by two.

That’s an MMA-level elbow on the baseline by Tyler Herro. Not sure if you noticed, the referee was mere feet away from that play.

Obviously, this isn’t going to help the whole “the refs look out for the top teams” conspiracy theory. This may have taken away a prime chance for the Razorbacks to gain a marquee win on the best team in their conference on their home court. This is the type of win these lesser teams use to recruit and hype up the crowd for years to come.

This was clearly a foul, and with the Wildcats up by just two points with two seconds left, at the very least this should have been two shots for Arkansas. One might argue this raises to the level of a flagrant, being it was a blow to the head, and then Arkansas would have the chance to win.

Sure, the Razorbacks shouldn’t have given up the lead, or allow Kentucky to score 42 in the second half, but the reality is they should have had a chance to tie this game up. The referees “let them play,” but by doing that gave Kentucky an advantage. They ended up winning the game by a score of 70-66, and their road to the number one seed is safe for now.