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Trevon Brazile tagged with questionable flagrant foul vs. St. John’s
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Trevon Brazile was tagged with a flagrant foul in Saturday’s March Madness matchup between Arkansas and St. John’s, quickly flipping the momentum of the game in favor of the Red Storm. It’s also worth questioning whether or not a flagrant was the right call to begin with.
In the first half of the action, Brazile and Zuby Ejiofor of St. John’s were fighting back and forth to position themselves for a potential rebound. The game has been physical in nature throughout, and the battle was a textbook example of that physicality.
As the shot attempt was coming off the rim, Ejiofor went to the floor off a push from Brazile with a common foul initially called on the court. On the surface, it looked like a pair of big men fighting hard both ways before the push from Brazile, but the review saw things differently.
In spite of the broadcast crew seeing the play as “a common foul,” officials came away from the monitor with an upgrade to a flagrant 1 foul on Brazile, giving St. John’s 2 free throws and the ball. Here’s the incident down low:
That play was significant for a couple of reasons. It went down as Brazile’s 2nd foul of the game with Arkansas already fighting foul trouble with halftime approaching. The Razorbacks have already been whistled for 11 fouls with 4 different players already holding 2 fouls each while big man Zvonimir Ivisic has been whistled for 3 in the first half.
At the time that Brazile was whistled for the flagrant, Arkansas held a 24-19 lead. St. John’s went on an immediate 5-0 run and retook its first lead since the score was 4-2 early on.
We’ll see how things shape up, but Saturday’s game has been a physical and chippy one across the first half.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
