Sports

Baylor Athletic Director Rips Into Big 12 Referees After Head Coach Was Ejected Over Lame Fouls

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Scott Drew Baylor Ejection
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Scott Drew was ejected from a game for the first time in his career during Baylor basketball’s narrow win over Iowa State on Saturday night. It was a rather controversial decision to remove him from the contest.

Drew was issued a pair of technical fouls for stepping outside of the coach’s box. However, neither he nor athletic director Mack Rhoades received an explanation for the ejection.

Here is the incident that led to Drew being tossed:

He received the first technical foul for a similar sequence during the first half. A pair of technicals results in expulsion from the court.

Rhoades walked back into the tunnel with Drew. They could not fathom the decision.

The coaching box was extended to allow more room on the sidelines in 2017. The 2023/24 NCAA men’s basketball rule book listed the coaching box as a point of emphasis.

However, coaches frequently step beyond the box and sometimes onto the court. Rarely does reprimand go beyond a stern warning. A technical foul is very uncommon. Two is practically unheard of.

As could be expected, Drew was baffled by the first ejection of his career. Although Baylor was able to hang on in the end, his exit sparked a 16-0 run for Iowa State that almost led to a comeback victory.

The Cyclones hit a walk-off buzzer-beater that was called off upon further review.

Rhoades was furious about how everything went down, and not only because of the coaching box fouls. The officiating was inconsistent and questionable throughout most of the game.

He did not hold back during his postgame press conference.

I’m not somebody that calls the officials or calls the league after every game. In fact, I never call when it comes to officiating. It’s always about, “We need to play better, we need to execute better, we need to play tougher” all of those things. But tonight was an embarrassment for this league. We have the best basketball league in the country and the officiating tonight did not match it. Period. End of story.

— Mack Rhoades

As for the next steps, Rhoades plans to get on the phone with the Big 12 ASAP.

It will be easy for him to plead his case because league’s commissioner Brett Yormark was in attendance at the top-15 college basketball game. He saw it all go down with his own eyes and will have to offer an explanation to Rhoades that makes sense!