How Arkansas brilliantly capitalized on poor NCAA officiating to knock Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga out

Did you hear that whistle? Nothing happened. But the refs just called yet another foul on Chet Holmgren.

Did you hear that whistle? Nothing happened. But the refs just called yet another foul on Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren.

Possession after possession, and for three of the five fouls he was called for, it felt all this center did to earn each foul was exist while tall on a basketball court. But that didn’t seem to matter to the referees that officiated Gonzaga’s loss against Arkansas who, admittedly, played a far better game.

However, you didn’t have to have any invested interest in Gonzaga to come to this conclusion. It was just infuriating watching how quick the whistles came against Holmgren, especially considering how much the game was impacted by all of the controversial calls.

Holmgren is an otherworldly prospect who is the projected top pick in my latest NBA mock draft. But in his likely last moments of college basketball, he fouled out with plenty of time left on the clock. It was devastating.

College referees are wildly inconsistent and not always the best, although that’s a part of the game we have come to expect.

(As an aside, the NCAA needs to allow for six fouls instead of a player fouling out at five. Fans want to see the best players on the court, not the refs blowing whistles.)

But make no mistake. With all of that in mind, Arkansas, led by head coach Eric Musselman, knew how to make the most of the officiating. He had the perfect strategy to knock off the Bulldogs.

After the game, Arkansas big man Jaylin Williams said that the idea was for the Razorbacks to get Holmgren in foul trouble so that he would have to go to the sidelines.

The Razorbacks were the perfect team to execute such a plan, too. This past season, they drew 19.7 personal fouls per game. That ranked as the highest mark among all teams in any of the Power Five conferences.

Meanwhile, they also forced opponents to commit 2.9 offensive fouls per game. That, too, was the most among those teams. Williams is especially masterful at drawing charges.

When that is highlighted on the scouting report, opponents might become less likely to score near the basket so that they can avoid the potential charge call.

The plan worked like a charm, and it sent Gonzaga into a spiraled frenzy.

On the season, Gonzaga averaged 44.0 points per game in the paint while shooting 63.9% in that zone. Both of those figures ranked as the best in all of college basketball. However, against Arkansas, that fell to 34 points and they made just 50% of their field goal attempts in the paint.

More important, though, was the chess move to make sure Holmgren wasn’t around to kill them. Gonzaga, led by head coach Mark Few, wasn’t forced to pull Holmgren once he got in foul trouble. But he fell for the bait, and during those minutes, the team suffered.

Against the Razorbacks, Holmgren was the only player on the Bulldogs with a positive point differential when he was on the floor.

He was clearly the engine that powered their defensive unit. Gonzaga allowed 39 points in the 23 minutes he played (67.8 points per 40 minutes) and 35 points in the 17 minutes that he did not (82.3 pts per 40), per Pivot Analysis.

Arkansas was able to increase the minutes Holmgren was unavailable by repeatedly drawing contact so that he would have to sit with foul trouble, and the refs were buying every second of it.

It wasn’t Gonzaga’s shot selection, which was actually pretty good, that cost them this tournament game.

It was the well-executed game plan from Musselman, which capitalized on the fact that refs aren’t always going to make the correct call. Considering that players are only allowed five fouls in college, as opposed to six in the NBA, it was a brilliant idea.

All stats are pulled from CBB Analytics unless it is noted otherwise.