We need to talk about the groin area.
If you think it’s uncomfortable to talk about, imagine how Purdue forward Trey Kaufmann-Renn felt on Saturday when he absorbed a blow there from Wisconsin 6-foot senior guard Kamari McGee during Saturday’s game at Mackey Arena. Here’s the play I’m referring to (men, be prepared to wince):
The contact appeared to be accidental. But was it clearly accidental? That’s what the referees had to determine as they went to the monitor. Under Rule 4, Article 2, Section 15, Article 2.c.2.d of the NCAA Basketball Rulebook, a flagrant 2 ejection must be given in response to “(a)ny contact by the offending player to the groin area of an opponent which is not clearly accidental.”
Sigmund Freud famously declared “there is no such thing in an accident,” but he never had to ref a Big Ten game. The officials determined that McGee’s contact warranted a flagrant 2. The Badgers managed to win anyway, but this play was a major topic of controversy during and after the game.
The “groin area” rule was put into the rulebook for the 2015-16 season, but oddly enough, it hasn’t attracted much controversy until this season. Two weeks before McGee’s ejection, Texas Tech forward J.T. Toppin was assessed a flagrant 2 during the opening minutes of a huge game at Houston for doing this:
Many people (including me) thought that Toppin’s kick met the definition of “clearly accidental.” So did Red Raiders coach Grant McCasland, who reacted so vociferously that he, too, was run out of the game. Just like the Badgers, Texas Tech managed to win a road game over a top-10 team, which was amazingly impressive considering Toppin is the Red Raiders’ leading scorer and rebounder.
After McGee got ejected on Saturday, I texted a couple of my referee sources and asked what they thought of the call. Here’s what a few texted back:
“Refs are in a box with the rule that ANY contact to the groin area that is not purely can only be called a Flagrant 2. We can’t call it Flagrant 1. That is not an option for us. On this play the officials had to deem that this was not accidental. Glad I didn’t have to make this call. … Hoping the rule gets changed this off-season and allow us to call flagrant 1 on these type plays. Slippery slope for us to decide if it is accidental or intentional.”
“No win play. Can defend either way. Next year I believe there is going to be a rules change saying you can have a F1 on this play. Now it’s F2 or nothing.”
“The call was correct. By rule hitting in the groin is an automatic F2.”
Rules changes can’t happen during the season, so I would hope – and frankly, I’d expect – that the NCAA would offer some type of clarification in the near future. Because if you think this conversation is uncomfortable now, just wait until it happens to a key player during the NCAA Tournament. That’s a painful scenario that everyone in college basketball should try to avoid.
Uzan Is Making His Point at Houston
Houston brought back most of its top players from last season’s No. 1 seed, but there was one glaring departure—senior All-American point guard Jamal Shead. To fill that void, Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson brought in Oklahoma transfer Milos Uzan, a 6-foot-4 junior. Replacing a player of Shead’s caliber in a high-profile program is hard enough, but unlike Shead and his predecessors at the position, Uzan did not have the luxury of being there for multiple seasons before he was handed the reins.
Uzan’s preseason preparation was disrupted when he had surgery in early October to repair a broken nose. That cost him three weeks of practice. The rust showed when Uzan played tentatively in the Cougars’ early losses to Auburn, Alabama and San Diego State. That produced a lot of chatter that Uzan wasn’t up to the gargantuan task of replacing Shead. When I spoke with Sampson on Sunday, he conceded that the chatter got to Uzan. “It would be impossible not to, right?” he said. “I told him, you know, the difference between confident people and non-confident people is that non-confident people are always concerned about what other people think and say. Confident people don’t care.”
Confidence is earned through hard work and success and Uzan has had a lot of that lately—and not coincidentally, so have the Cougars. Uzan played his best game of the season on Saturday at Arizona, going for a season-high 19 points to go along with 5 assits and 0 turnovers in the 62-58 win. Uzan’s also had 17 points, 9 assists and 0 turnovers during a double-overtime win at Kansas on Jan. 25. Uzan has been a model of efficiency all season (he has 122 assists to 28 turnovers for a ridiculous 4.36 assist-to-turnover ratio) but has been even better in Big 12 play: 66 assists to 12 turnovers for a 5.5 ratio.
Sampson describes Uzan as “respectful and really mature,” so it’s understandable why he would be reluctant to assert himself offensively. But as teams have loaded up on the Cougars’ other scorers, Uzan has found himself with ever more opportunities. When Arizona consistently played drop coverage on his pick-and-rolls, it was essentially daring Uzan to score. “I kept telling him, when you get downhill, don’t look for people to pass to. Score the ball,” Sampson said. “That’s what I’m saying to him all the time. ‘This isn’t Jamal’s team. He’s got the Toronto Raptors. This is your team. You’re the point guard.”
It is remarkable that Houston can lose a player of Shead’s caliber and see its offensive improve. Last season the Cougars were ranked No. 19 on KenPom in adjusted offensive efficiency. They are currently 10thwhile still ranking No. 3 in defensive efficiency. Even more remarkably, the Cougars are 7-0 on the road this season. This team only had one real question and Uzan has answered it emphatically. It should surprise exactly no one if the Cougars end their season in San Antonio.
Seth Davis' 2025 Bracket Breakdown
Fresh off the CBS Selection Show, Hoops HQ’s Editor-in-Chief explains his bracket picks region by region
Underwood Wants His Illini to Let It Fly
When I wrote early in the season about Illinois’ striking transformation to an analytic-driven, three-happy attack, coach Brad Underwood told me that if it were up to him, every shot his players attempt would be from three. They’re not there, but they’re closer than most: The Illini are launching 47.1 percent of their attempts from behind the arc, which ranks 27thnationally per KenPom.
The problem is that they’re only making 31.1 percent, which ranks 309th. They average 30.3 attempts per game, which ranks fifth nationally. That has led to some unsightly offensive droughts, none worse than Saturday’s collapse at home at Michigan State. Illinois once led the game by 16 points but missed 19 straight shots over the final 8:29 to lose 79-65.
So I asked Underwood on Sunday if he was still okay with his team taking so many threes. “I’m great with it,” he said. “The problem is when we don’t offensive rebound. We’re 15th in the country (in offensive efficiency) so we’re not bad on that end. It’s about attacking the rim and getting paint touches and then spraying it. And to be honest, we’re not a great low post team. We’re not going to throw it in the post a ton, right? So this is who this team is.”
Underwood told me his greater concern is on the defensive end, which is why he spent all of Sunday’s practice on D. “When you don’t play right defensively, the basketball gods won’t allow you to be successful offensively,” he said. “We’ve got too many guys focused on that other end. We haven’t played with enough attitude lately, no personality and no fight. So we’re trying to back to being engaged with some of our habits.”
It doesn’t help that Illinois is so heavily reliant on freshmen while contending with multiple illnesses and injuries. And this won’t be an easy week. The Illini at red-hot Wisconsin on Tuesday and then on Saturday they travel to New York to play Duke in Madison Square Garden. This team still has great potential, but if it doesn’t find a way to either make more threes or take better shots, then those offensive droughts are going to persist. So will the losses.
Other Hoop Thoughts
* UConn’s loss at Seton Hall is a great example of why I say the most underrated thing in sports is not losing. I’m not talking about winning, which I would define as beating good teams. I’m talking about not losing to teams you should beat. Seton Hall has been one of the worst power conference teams in the country and the Huskies were hardly in position to take them lightly. But they obvioulsy did and got sloppy (and a little unlucky) at the end as the Pirates won in overtime 69-68. When UConn is good, it can be very good, especially now that Liam McNeeley is healthy again. (He had 38 points in Tuesday’s 70-66 win at Creighton.) But this team still ranks No. 100 nationally on KenPom in adjusted defensive efficiency and has no business losing to a team like Seton Hall at this state of the season. If that teaches them that they’re not good enough to take any opponent lightly, then it can be a good thing. Mostly, I think it’s an indication that this team is ripe to be plucked in March.
* It’s pretty darn remarkable that there are just three weeks left in the regular season and Michigan is alone in first place in the Big Ten. Each of the Wolverines’ last seven wins have come by four points or fewer. Do they make their own luck, or are they lucky? The answer is yes to both. But the main takeaway here is that Michigan AD Warde Manuel needs to give Dusty May a hefty raise and an extension before Indiana even gets a chance to call him about its coaching vacancy. IU, of course, is May’s alma mater and while I don’t think he’s inclined to leave Ann Arbor after just one year, he distinctly did not say flat-out he wouldn’t take the job when he was asked about it in Bloomington last week.
* Not sure you’re aware of this, but because of the schools that both the ACC and Big Ten added over the summer, the bottom three teams in each league will not qualify for the conference tournaments. The competition to stay out of those last three spots will be just as fierce as the fight to finish at the top (which in the ACC is pretty much over anyway).
* As if we didn’t already know Rick Pitino is good at his job, consider this: Two of his former players at Iona are excelling for great teams—Walter Clayton, the 6-foot-2 senior guard who is the leading scorer at Florida, and Nelly Junior Joseph, the 6-foot-9 senior forward who is the leading rebounder and second-leading scorer at New Mexico. If Pitino were still at Iona and was able to keep those two guys in the program, the Gaels would be a top-25 team right now, maybe even a top-10 team, because we can assume he would have continued to add quality talent around those guys.
* I keep waiting for Kentucky’s injuries to take their toll and I think it may have started to happen down the stretch at Texas. The Wildcats are playing without their starting backcourt of Lamont Butler (shoulder) and Jaxson Robinson (wrist) and to hear coach Mark Pope tell it, it doesn’t seem like those guys are going to be back anytime soon—if at all. And the other point guard, Kerr Kriisa, is still a ways away from returning from the broken foot he sustained in early December. Given how long Kriisa has been out, it’s hard to imagine him being effective if and when he does come back. Kentucky ranks 76th in adjusted defensive efficiency on KenPom and is dead last in the entire country in non-steal turnover percentage. So if the Cats are not totally on fire on offense, they can lose to anyone. Also keep in mind that while 6-foot-7 guard is shooting 44.1 percent from three, he is shooting just 29 percent from three in SEC road games. I fear this team is headed for a sputtering finish.
* Speaking of Texas, we all know that freshman guard Tre Johnson is a bucket, but I’ve been really impressed with his development as a passer (he is averaging 4.0 assists to just 1.7 turnovers over his last seven games), competitor (season-high 9 rebounds vs. Kentucky) and leader. I watched Johnson play in high school and I’ve been around him some. He always struck me as a thoughtful, reserved type, but you can see just how much he wants to play in the NCAA Tournament. Texas will need that drive from him because the Longhorns are currently without their leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, Arthur Kaluma, who injured his knee during Tuesday’s loss to Alabama and did not play against Kentucky. The Longhorns’ Glue Guy, junior guard Chendall Weaver, will hopefully be back for their next game on Saturday at South Carolina after missing most of conference play with a hip injury.
* It has been pretty wild to see Kansas spiral from preseason No. 1 to possibly out of the rankings following its loss at Utah. It was the Jayhawks’ third straight Big 12 road loss with another challenging road game coming up Tuesday at BYU. Much like last season, this Kansas squad really struggles to score. But unlike last season, it doesn’t have an All-American caliber player on the wing like Kevin McCullar. Senior center Hunter Dickinson has been solid, but he is surrounded by way too many non-shooters as transfers Rylan Griffin (Alabama) and A.J. Storr (Wisconsin) have underformed. Worst of all, KU ranks No. 357 on KenPom in free throw rate, so the Jayhawks are unable to make up for the lack of jump shooting at the line. I know this is a program with a great coach and impressive pedigree, but this team is not going to scare anyone in March.
* One of the best conference races in the country is taking place in the Big West, where UC San Diego and UC Irvine are tied for first with a 12-2 record. The teams split their season series (with the road team winning each time) and appear to be destined for a rubber match in the Big West Tournament final. The big question will not be who wins but whether the loser will be given an at-large bid. I’d say that’s unlikely, but not impossible. UC San Diego has the better chance because it’s ranked No. 43 in the NET (UC Irvine is 62nd) and has two Quad 1 wins, including at Utah State, to UC Irvin’s one. If you can find their games, it’s worth staying up to watch.
