In his post-game press conference after the Kentucky Wildcats defeated the LSU Tigers on Saturday, Coach John Calipari spoke his mind about the officiating on freshman Demarcus Cousins.
There have been a couple incidents lately where a foul has been called on the UK post player and the officials have referred to the TV replay to see if the foul could be considered flagrant. According to Calipari, the officials miss several fouls from opposing players on Cousins that add to Demarcus' frustration and lead to him committing fouls.
"My issue is they keep going to the monitor as he gets absolutely whacked, hacked, grabbed, pushed and shoved," Calipari said of Cousins. "And what he does, they go to the monitor."
"If you want to go to the monitor, you've got to protect him," the UK coach said. "Then just call every foul. But you can't let him get grabbed, pushed (and) shoved, then expect no kind of response. ... The issue becomes if you play that way, you're counting on those being called. Call them all. Call 50.
Jerry Tipton published an article with the above quotes from Coach Cal. There are several more quotes in the article of interest including how Cousins feels about the "foul situation".
As long as Demarcus keeps his cool and continues his strong play, this issue will become a moot point. Cousins should take pride in the fact that the only way a team can stop him is to foul him.
