Tracking Doug Shows’ 30-year history with Kentucky basketball

Saturday night was a throwback to a 1990s Kentucky/Arkansas matchup. Fast pace, very physical, a raucous crowd, and a national TV audience. That is the way it should be every night. You may not win every game, but you should be in every game until the end. It was a fantastic, fun game. A game that Kentucky wasn't expected to win, and it feels like Doug Shows did all he could to keep Kentucky from pulling off the upset.

The 39 seconds that could have cost the Cats the game

Up 51-46 with 14:49 to go, Brandon Garrison allows his emotions to get a little out of control and picks up a Technical, one he deserved, for standing over an Arkansas player and taunting him. Arkansas sends Ewin to the line, where he misses both. At this moment, I am thinking,
Sheww, we dodged a bullet there", but more shots are about to be fired. This is where things get crazy. 22 seconds later, Mo Dioubate gets a clean block and smiles at the camera, saying a little something. You see this type of stuff every game.

Doug Shows ego decided that no one else deserved a close-up at this time and called a T on Mo. Kentucky, Mark Pope, ESPN, and all of BBN just shook their head. Did we just witness that? Was that the worst technical call in College basketball history? Shows had completely changed the game, but it wasn't over just yet.

After Acuff hits both FT's and cuts the lead to 51-48. On the ensuing Arkansas possession, Kentucky again catches a break, as Ewin misses a layup. But Shows was about to make sure the good fortune didn't last long. Kentucky is forced into a questionable 10-second backcourt turnover, which leads to Pope ripping into Shows. And he knew he was probably going to get that technical, but at that point, you have to stick up for the players. Not one to be outshined, Shows calls another T on the Cats, this time on Pope. This would be the 3rd technical on Kentucky within 39 seconds, not sure I have ever seen anything like it.

A 51-46 lead is now a 57-53 deficit with 12:19 to go. The game has completely changed, and it seems like all is lost for UK. Luckily, the Cats battled back and got the win despite some very questionable whistles.

All of this mess got me wondering what previous games with Shows officiating looked like. Does he deserve the ire of BBN? Do things seem worse because he officiates so many big games? I took a look at all the Kentucky games officiated by Doug Shows to find out, all 146 of them, according to bigbluehistory.net.

Doug Shows has a complicated history with Kentucky

The first UK game Shows officiated was a 12/17/1994 matchup against Texas Tech. Kentucky won 83-68. There was only one technical called in that game; it was on TT for a scorebook mishap.

The first official Technical Shows called on Kentucky happened in 1998, according to bigbluehistory.net. When he called 2 against Scott Padgett. One for celebrating a dunk, and the other for questioning a travel violation. This is a trend that has continued throughout all games where Shows is on the sideline. Shows has been involved in over 25 technicals against UK in games he has officiated, reported by bigbluehistory.net.

Some other notable games where Shows pulled an Oprah and gave everyone a T were the 2010 Kentucky/UofL game. This was the first Cal vs Pitino game in Cal's tenure at UK. 5 players received Technicals in this game.

• The 2012 UK/Miss St had 4 Technicals, 2 by Mr. Shows.
• The infamous game where Cal got tossed out of Bud Walton was officiated by no other than Mr. Shows himself.

I know officiating is a very tough job; I do not envy them, but it seems that some officials feel the game can't surpass their ego.

Dough Shows is well-known, but is that a good thing?

But it is not just UK games, look at how Field of 68 covered his double tech the day after calling all the technicals in Kentucky vs Arkansas:

Its probably not great when the analysts are talking about the ref more than the players.