They Wuz Robbed

Now first off, I am no fan of Kentucky basketball. That's close to saying I'm no fan of Florida football or New York baseball. But when the SEC is in the tournament or a bowl game, generally everyone in the SEC roots for our own schools.

So I'm watching the UK/Michigan State game last night...

If you watched it, or saw any of the highlights, Kentucky was down by three points with about 8 seconds to go. Two Wildcats attempted 3-pt-shots to tie the game, but failed. 2 seconds left - Patrick Sparks grabs the ball, steps behind the 3-point line, lets it loose...

Is fouled!!!

...before the ball bounces and falls through as the buzzer sounds.

The arena erupts as it seems Kentucky has magically sent the game to overtime

The refs spend 5 minutes determining whether Sparks' foot was on or behind the 3-point-line -- which its determined it was -- and overtime is ruled.

But there was no discussion, from the refs, from the announcers, nobody...about how Sparks was fouled as he took his last shot. There was a clear hip check from the MSU defender as he was in the air shooting the ball - a more flagrant foul than several others that had been called earlier in the game.

For you see, had the foul been called...Sparks would've had that rarest of rare opportunities, to make a 4-point-play. Since the foul would have been in the act of shooting and the basket counted, he would've gotten one foul shot.

With 0.0 seconds left on the clock, one made free throw would've won the game by one point for the Wildcats and we would've seen the wildest Kentucky finish since the Duke/Christian Laetner heartbreak of 10 years ago.

But instead, it was never discussed, never argued. Nothing. Kentucky went on to lose in 2OT's 94-88.

It wasn't so much that I was dying for Kentucky to win, or Michigan State to lose - I just wanted a perfect ending to a ball game. And they blew it.