Thursday Quickies: Vandy gets robbed by Tennessee Edition

Vanderbilt almost upset #1 Tennessee last night in a crazy game.

By Zac Oakes@ZacOakes Jan 24, 2019, 6:40am EST

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NCAA Basketball: Tennessee at Vanderbilt

Many of you watched the Vanderbilt-Tennessee game last night, which was quite a game to behold.

Grant Williams became the darling (if he wasn’t already) of much of the college basketball talking heads and Tennessee pulled out a narrow victory on the road in their first game as the #1 team, a ranking they could still hold when they come to Lexington on Feb. 16.

But it wasn’t without some controversy. Specifically, that AWFUL flagrant foul call near the end of regulation that put Tennessee back in the game. I know you can never be certain, but I firmly believe that shouldn’t have been a foul and at the very least a normal foul, and calling it a flagrant robbed Vandy of a major victory.

This is why we are going to OT pic.twitter.com/9ViOm4jvNX
— Barstool SEC (@SECBarstool) January 24, 2019

The Commodores were up six and would’ve taken possession of the ball but instead, Grant Williams goes to the free throw line where he knocks down two shots and then a quick layup off the inbound cuts the lead from six to two in less than 10 seconds. I still can’t believe that was called a flagrant foul.

Granted, Vandy made some big mistakes in crunch time. Bad turnovers, missed free throws, poor shot selection... all contributed to the loss, but that doesn’t negate how poor of a call that was and how poorly the game was officiated.

That game should serve as a caution to Kentucky when they travel to Nashville on Tuesday. We know winning in that gym is difficult, but this Vandy team is better than their record suggests. As for Kentucky’s upcoming game against Tennessee, just go ahead and resign yourself to a lot of talk about Grant Williams and Williams spending a lot of time at the free throw line.

Tweets of the Day

The referees have created this environment in the Tennessee/Vanderbilt game. They lost control. This is on them.
I hope this officiating gets the scrutiny it deserves. What a disaster.
— Rex Chapman (@rex_rexchapman) January 24, 2019

It’s a safe bet the Kentucky-Tennessee game will have at least some of the same crew.

Attention Kentucky frontcourt players: when you play Tennessee, don’t touch, look at, breathe on or think about Grant Williams, or you’ll be called for a foul.
— Not Jerry Tipton (@NotJerryTipton) January 24, 2019

It’ll most likely be an issue when the Cats and Vols take the floor.