Controversial calls abound in final minutes of Arkansas' upset of Gonzaga

Arkansas more than impressed in its upset of No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga on Thursday. The officials, not so much.

The fall of the top-ranked team in the NCAA men's basketball tournament saw several controversial calls in the final minutes. They weren't the only reason Arkansas topped the Bulldogs 74-68 — the Razorbacks saw their own share of bad calls — but there were enough for the referees to once again be the storyline.

The most significant whistles came with Chet Holmgren — Gonzaga's most important player on defense and a strong contender to go first overall in the 2022 NBA draft — in the restricted area, trying to hold off an aggressive Arkansas offense.

Here is Holmgren's third foul, which many believed should have been a no-call or offensive foul on Arkansas star Jaylin Williams.

Then there was this run-in with Au'Diese Toney for Holmgren's fourth:

And then there was the fifth foul, a call that CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore fully disagreed with:

With no Holmgren for the final three minutes of the game, Gonzaga was nowhere close to its top form as it tried to mount a dramatic comeback. The upset will almost certainly be the final game of Holmgren's career at Gonzaga, as he's expected to be a top 3 pick this summer.

There were some other lowlights for the officials as well, such as blatantly missing a player stepping out of bounds and a trip of ball-carrier on defense.

Officials have unfortunately been an undeniable presence in some games this year. By far the biggest miss was the end of regulation in Arizona-TCU, in which some hard contact led to a steal and game-tying dunk for Arizona to avoid a shocking upset in the second round. The clock also bizarrely stopped as Arizona moved forward with the ball, giving the No. 1 seed just enough time to land the dunk.

Another upset bid against a top seed was nearly derailed in the second half of UNC-Baylor, which veered into the realm of performance art after a questionable ejection of UNC forward Brady Manek, who led the Tar Heels in scoring at the moment of his flagrant 2 foul.