Fans React to Officiating in Gonzaga-Arkansas Game

Twitter once again was not happy with the officiating during Thursday night’s Sweet 16 upset.

Officiating has been a big topic of conversation during this year’s March Madness as fans continue to debate whether certain calls should have been called, or if officials missed some calls on the court.

The discussion came up once again on Thursday night during the Gonzaga-Arkansas men’s Sweet 16 game as the No. 4 Razorbacks defeated the No. 1 Bulldogs, 74-68. 

The game ended with 20 fouls on Arkansas players and 17 fouls on Gonzaga players.

Five of those Gonzaga fouls were called on freshman Chet Holmgren, causing him to foul-out with just over three minutes remaining in the game. At the time, the Bulldogs were down six points.

Chet Holmgren fouled out on this play 👀

Gonzaga is currently down 8 with 2:08 left #MarchMadness

(via @MarchMadnessMBB) pic.twitter.com/EIOFvacUH1

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 25, 2022

Although more fouls were called on the Razorbacks, fans thought there were various miscalls on Gonzaga, specifically some of the calls on Holmgren. Twitter went into a frenzy again while discussing the game’s officiating.

How refs wanted Chet to play defense pic.twitter.com/O3ukuegGVz

— Jarrel (@_JarrelHarris) March 25, 2022

Watching these Gonzaga-Arkansas and Michigan-Villanova games, and the way the two games have been officiated (one is a wrestling match, one is getting hit with every little bit of contact), it’s clear there is just no consistency right now in collegiate officiating. It’s crazy.

— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) March 25, 2022

this game is the perfect combination of poor officiating hurting Gonzaga and Arkansas chucking up YOLO threes with no regard for human life to balance it out

— Mike Golic Jr (@mikegolicjr) March 25, 2022

the refs have called way more fouls on Arkansas, but like the 4 least accurate foul calls have all been on Gonzaga https://t.co/fHVb2d0byh

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) March 25, 2022

Looking forward to seeing if anybody actually tries to defend the officials after this mess of a performance in Gonzaga-Arkansas.

— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) March 25, 2022

these refs…. pic.twitter.com/S8DWEl5bex

— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) March 25, 2022

They fouled Chet out on a garbage call and somehow missed the Arkansas guy stepping 9 feet out of bounds. College basketball refs — making us feel better about NBA refs one game at a time!

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) March 25, 2022