Duke's Kyle Filipowski shreds Tennessee's Uros Plavsic over clear flagrant foul vs. FAU
During Tennessee’s upset loss to Florida Atlantic in the Sweet Sixteen, Uros Plavsic was called for a flagrant foul after appearing to throw an elbow. The play caught plenty of on social media, including those of Duke star Kyle Filipowski.
Of course, Filipowski was at the center of a controversial play against Tennessee in the Round of 32. Plavsic appeared to throw an elbow and send Filipowski to the ground, and that led to a variety of reactions after replay showed he might have oversold it.
So, when video of the play involving Plavsic against FAU came across his timeline, he weighed in with an expert opinion.
“Speaking from experience I don’t think this is a basketball play…” Filipowski tweeted late Thursday night.
Plavsic was called for a flagrant foul with 7:30 to play in the second half as Florida Atlantic stormed back to upset the Vols and punch the program’s first-ever ticket to the Elite Eight. Officials reviewed the play after Rick Barnes called a timeout, and the CBS announcing crew tried to piece together what exactly happened.
At first, they said it didn’t look like a flagrant foul.
“I didn’t see an awful lot on the elbow,” rules analyst Gene Steratore said. “To me, it looked like things got tangled up here, now at that point with No. 33 there, you get a common foul. … I really didn’t see anything that rose to the level of flagrant to me. That’s just my opinion on the play.”
“I’m right with you, Gene,” said Jim Jackson, who was doing the color commentary for the matchup. “I didn’t see an elbow or anything like that. I saw two young men going after the ball, being physical, one more than the other, resulting, to me, a common foul.”
The announcers were watching the wrong part of the play, though. Out of the break, they found the moment Plavsic threw the elbow and confirmed they thought the officials got the call right.
At the time, FAU had a 48-41 lead over Tennessee and the Owls wound up winning the game 62-55, coming all the way back from a nine-point deficit to move on to the East Regional final. Florida Atlantic will now face off against No. 3 seed Kansas State in the Elite Eight Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET. The winner earns a trip to the Final Four in Houston next week.