Kenny Brooks and Kentucky took a tough loss in Knoxville, but the head coach had a lot on his mind after the game.
During the contest, Tennessee was very physical, and sometimes that crossed a line, especially with Clara Strack. There were some fouls called, but on plenty of others, the refs swallowed the whistle. Kentucky was terrible from the free-throw line, but they could have prevented some of those 21 turnovers if the officials had called the game a bit tighter. It is much easier to pressure when you can pull on bodies, jerseys, or hand-check all the way down the court.
There was a particular sequence in the third quarter where Strack nabbed a rebound and was hit across the arm. She was trapped but spun out, only to get body-checked by a Vol before turning it over into a layup for Tennessee. Anytime the Vols sent a double team, there was some jersey tugging going on. They clearly got the memo that she struggles with physicality…