Much has been made of John Calipari's comments at halftime of the Duke-Kentucky game.
"They're flopping all over the place," the Kentucky basketball head coach said. "In the NBA, they'd all be suspended."
FLOP-GATE: Read about Calipari's comments and Duke's reaction, belief in taking charges
The block-charge call is a notoriously difficult one to make. Referees have to decide who is responsible for the contact, depending on if the defender was already in the dribbler's path, or if the dribbler “passes an opponent sufficently to have head and shoulders beyond the front of the opponent’s torso.”
An important note is that the NCAA implemented a restricted arc beneath the hoop where defenders cannot draw charges.
There were four charges called on Kentucky in the first half. Let's take a look at each one of them:
12:31—Julius Mays drives and passes the ball out, but Josh Hairston absorbs contact from Mays in the lane and earns the charge call.
This one is a bit difficult to see in the photo, but Mays is No. 34, the only Kentucky player in the lane. As he dishes the ball to Willie Cauley-Stein, Hairston (who is largely obscured by Mays in the picture), steps up and takes the hit.
Verdict: This was either correctly called or should have been a no-call, but it was neither a block nor a flop. Hairston got to his position outside of the arc and took the charge from Mays, who continued to progress through the lane despite Hairston's presence there. The contact was not extremely agressive, nor was it when Mays still had the ball, so a no-call from the referees would have been understandable as well.
12:10—On the possession after Mays' charge, guard Jarrod Polson drives and Seth Curry takes the contact on the block.
Verdict: Again, this wasn't a flop—there was a significant amount of contact. It was also outside the semicircle. What is worth debating, however, was how firmly Curry was planted. He beat Polson to the spot, it appeared, but just barely because he was primarily defending Kentucky guard Archie Goodwin on the possession. But as Polson drove, Curry slid down to the block to help and drew the charge.
7:25—With Kentucky pushing the ball up the court, Cauley-Stein gets the ball and makes a physical move into the post, passing the ball away near the block, but Tyler Thornton drew the charge against the 7-footer.
Verdict: This one, like the first one, could have been a no-call from the officials. But it also was not a flop—there was clearly contact between the two players. Thornton, No. 3, can be seen on the far block stepping up with his arms raised in front of Cauley-Stein. He appeared to have sufficient position and didn't step in too late, so it would've been a tough block call on the guard.
0:34—Alex Poythress, who threw down an emphatic put-back on the previous possession, caught the ball on the 3-point line and lowered his shoulder into Rasheed Sulaimon, who took the charge at the foul-line elbow.
Verdict: The one thing that is clear on this that Poythress lowers his shoulder, and that can be easily seen in the picture. Sulaimon probably threw in a bit of extra flair by hitting the floor, but offensive players are always at risk for an offensive foul when they lower their shoulder that obviously. This was a charge that Sulaimon made sure the refs noticed by hitting the deck.
Ultimately, none of the four charge calls were really flops. The referees could probably have kept the whistle in their pocket for two of the calls, but there was significant contact on all four plays. That doesn't mean there were no flops in the half—there were other situations in which players hit the deck and no calls were made.
And the point of this wasn't to say Duke, or any other team, never flops... just that the four charges in the first half of the Duke-Kentucky game all appear to be fairly legitimate.
After all we still all remember plays like this:
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