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NCAA rules on allowing UNC-Baylor referees to continue in tournament

by:Austin Brezina•03/22/22•

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Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

The NCAA has made a decision on whether or not the referees from the controversial UNC–Baylor game will be allowed to continue in the tournament. Two of the referees from that matchup have been chosen to officiate games in the Sweet 16 — Kipp Kissinger and Brent Hampton. Kissinger will referee in the South region held in San Antonio, while Hampton will be in the East region with UNC again.

NCAA advances referees from UNC-Baylor

UNC’s victory over No. 1 seed Baylor was one of the most exciting results of the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, but questionable officiating during the game left many fans exasperated. North Carolina held a major lead in the second half before star forward Brady Manek was called for a controversial flagrant 2 foul. Manek was boxing out for a rebound, and an inadvertent elbow caught Baylor’s Jeremy Sochan up high. The officials ruled the foul a flagrant 2 and ejected Manek from the contest.

Baylor rode the momentum of his ejection to a 25-point comeback, during which officials called 29 total fouls on both teams. One stretch of the comeback saw 10-straight fouls called against North Carolina. The game went into overtime where UNC would eventually complete the upset, but the pace of the game was controlled by referees throughout. Critics of the officials cited ESPN’s win-probability calculator, which stated the Tar Heels had a win probability of 99.9% with 10:30 to go in the game.

“If this info is correct, two of the three officials from UNC-Baylor—including Kip Kissinger—advanced to the next round, and one of them (Brent Hampton) is in Philadelphia with the Tar Heels,” explained GoHeels’ Adam Lucas.

Many called for the NCAA to examine the officiating crew from the game, calling for them to be held out of further games this tournament. However, it appears the NCAA decided two of the officials were worthy of continuing on and gave them assignments heading into the regional finals. While Hampton has continued into Philadelphia with UNC, it is not guaranteed that he will be officiating their Sweet 16 matchup. The referees assigned to each region are in a “pool” of available referees and will be assigned from there.