Jay Bilas comes up with hilarious way to stop bad charge calls, like the one that hurt Kentucky vs. Utah
Kentucky went to Las Vegas to take on Utah on Wednesday night and suffered a 69-66 loss. The Wildcats went only 2-for-17 from 3-point range, so it’s hard to blame the refs for too much.
Still, there was one bad call that hurt the Wildcats late, as freshman Kahlil Whitney was whistled for a charge on what should have been called a Utah flop.
You can see the play below:
Flop of the Year. How is it possible that officials fall for this? Be better.
This is not defense. pic.twitter.com/bx4sLFuyj7
— Rob Dauster (@RobDauster) December 19, 2019
Flops are something that refs are trying to eliminate from the game, and this seems to be one that was missed.
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas has a great way to stop bad charge calls like that one. The block/charge call is one of the most aggressive calls in all of sports. For a blocking foul, refs aggressively thrust their hips. For a charge, refs punch the air.
As you can see below, Bilas says those bad calls would go away if the refs had to do a different motion to make the call:
The only way to stop flopping and the epidemic of officials calling charges is to change the signal for a charge. Instead of the aggressive “air punch,” officials should be mandated to get in “downward facing dog” to signal a charge. That’ll stop it. https://t.co/rfoiN4Q25m
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) December 19, 2019
At this point, it’s probably worth a shot.