Questionable flagrant foul call leads to Kansas win over TCU
LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Kansas Jayhawks are known for their historic home atmosphere in Allen Fieldhouse and the favorable calls that officials often give them as well.
In KU’s 83-81 win over TCU, former Jayhawk Ernest Udeh Jr. was coming down with a rebound with 57 seconds left with the Horned Frogs up 79-77.
As Udeh came down with the ball, his right hand hit Kansas center Hunter Dickinson in the mouth.
The foul looked to be incidental contact but was ruled otherwise. A flagrant personal foul is defined as “illegal physical contact so extreme or deliberate that it places an opponent in danger of catastrophic injury”.
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Udeh Jr. was called for a Flagrant I personal foul that led to two free throws for Dickinson, which he made, and Dickinson went on to hit the game-winning layup with 3.4 seconds left to seal the win.
After the game, Dickinson said the foul hurt a lot but it helped the second-ranked Jayhawks open Big 12 play with a win.
“Hopefully I don’t always have to get elbowed to win the game,” he said. Dickinson finished the game with 30 points and 11 rebounds in his first-ever Big 12 matchup for his ninth double-double of the season.
He added that he wasn’t nervous at all about the free throws.
“I’d like to consider myself as a clutch player. That’s what I do. I’m clutch.”
Social media users accused Dickinson of traveling on his game-winning layup also, but no infraction was called and Dickinson clearly took a dribble before his shot.
KU head coach Bill Self said he had no clue what was going on when there was a brief pause before the foul was called.
“I saw it and it was an easy call,” Self said after the game. Kansas hasn’t lost a conference opener since 1991.
“Thought Hunter sold it well because if he hadn’t sold it, they wouldn’t have stopped the play. It was an obvious call but it was unfortunate because unintentional. But the arm definitely swung and definitely was above the shoulder in the mouth.”
TCU head coach Jamie Dixon declined to state his opinion on the call.
“We can’t say anything, we’re not allowed to,” Dixon said. “I’m not gonna have a high character group not change on behalf of what happened today.”
“We’re not gonna do it, I know what’s being said. But we got outrebounded and they were the more physical team. They knocked us all over the place the entire game.”
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The win helps Kansas avenge their blowout home loss to TCU last year, when the Horned Frogs ran the Jayhawks out of Allen with an 83-60 score, which is one of the worst home losses in the Self era.
KU now prepares to face UCF on the road on Wednesday night at 6 p.m.
