Basket interference should have been called. Tuesday’s Kentucky-LSU game should have gone into overtime. But given how hard it is to call goal-tending or basket interference in real time, it’s understandable that a mistake was made.
That’s how long-time college basketball referee John Clougherty saw the climatic basket that gave LSU a 73-71 victory.
Kavell Bigby-Williams tipped in Skylar Mays’ shot at the buzzer. Clougherty, who later worked as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s coordinator of officials before retiring, said he watched the game while dining with an ACC coach.
“They kept showing the shot above the rim,” he said of the many replays, “and it looked clearly to me that the ball had not totally cleared the cylinder.