The officiating, by Gawd!!!
Look, normally teams that complain about officiating are just making excuses for their lack of execution or aggressiveness. No official goes into the game wanting to make themselves the story, right (except for, maybe Mike Nance- at least when Rick Barnes is involved)?
When it comes to fouls for Kentucky Basketball, however, the box score tells a story.
Both Immanuel Quickley and Ashton Hagans fouled out. Nick Richards, E.J. Montgomery, and Keion Brooks Jr. all had 4 personal fouls. Johnny Juzang and Tyrese Maxey had 3 fouls. Auburn had only one player with 4 personal fouls.
Auburn outshot Kentucky Basketball from the charity stripe by an astounding 44-24. This allowed Auburn to stay in the game, as Kentucky outshot the Tigers from the field 40.8% to 35.3%, including a 37.5% to 26.1% edge from the three-point line.
In a game Kentucky Basketball lost by 9 points, Auburn made 13 more free throws than Kentucky. The Tigers 33 made free throws were more than the Cats attempted.
Was it a case of Kentucky Basketball making mistakes in their execution or aggressiveness? Everyone is entitled to their own perspective.
Just know that Jay Bilas was trending on Twitter during the game because of his opinion that not enough fouls were being called.