Following the Utah Utes’ 67-64 loss to the Oregon Ducks last Saturday, Utes head coach Larry Krystkowiak got heated in his postgame media session because of a questionable double dribble call against Timmy Allen in the waning seconds of the close contest.
On Wednesday, the Pac-12 formally reprimanded Krystkowiak for his comments.
“The Pac-12 membership has established rules that prohibit our coaches from publicly commenting about officiating,” commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. “We have an obligation to our members to enforce approved Conference rules. As part of our officiating program there is a protocol in place for our coaches to provide feedback directly to the coordinator of officials.”
After the game, Krystkowiak had said, “You know, what a team goes through, and we scrapped and we played our butts off, and it wasn’t error-free by any means. And we made plenty of mistakes. Oregon made plenty of mistakes. Dana (Altman) and I probably made plenty of mistakes,” he said. “But I think at the end of the day we let the players determine a game, so to make up a call at the end that didn’t even happen is mind-boggling, when we have palming, (which) is also a rule, as is double dribble.”
“And palming doesn’t seem to be called. I can show you 15 clips of palming tonight,” he continued. “So I am really confused and I feel really bummed for our team. I feel bad for the game, that it has to be that way. That’s how I feel about it.”
The Utes are 9-10 this season, with a record of 6-9 in Pac-12 play. They’re scheduled to next face the UCLA Bruins on Thursday night at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.