Ref reports death threats

He officiated Kentucky’s loss to North Carolina

Referee John Higgins of Omaha reported he received death threats after Kentucky’s loss to North Carolina in the NCAA South Regional final in Memphis, Tennessee, a Nebraska law enforcement official said Wednesday.

Higgins’ roofing company received about 3,000 harassing emails and an unknown number of phone calls, some including death threats, said Capt. Kevin Griger, investigations commander for the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Department.

The Facebook page for Higgins’ roofing company also was inundated with negative comments about Higgins and the quality of his company’s work. Griger described it Wednesday as an orchestrated effort to “run down his Better Business Bureau rating.”

North Carolina defeated Kentucky 75-73 on Sunday, winning on Luke Maye’s last-second shot. Kentucky coach John Calipari opened his news conference with a comment about foul calls. Freshmen stars Bam Adebayo, De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk each picked up two fouls in the first half. Fox, Monk and Derek Willis finished with four.

“You know, it’s amazing that we were in that game where they practically fouled out my team. Amazing that we had a chance,” Calipari said.

In a statement, the Kentucky athletic department said: “While we were all disappointed to see a memorable season end on Sunday and we appreciate the support our fans showed our student-athletes all year, we encourage our fans to demonstrate good sportsmanship to everyone and discourage any other kind of behavior.”

Maryland junior n guard Melo Trimble is forgoing his final year of collegiate eligibility to enter the NBA draft and will sign with an agent. Trimble, who was a threetime All-Big Ten selection, helped Maryland advance to its third straight NCAA Tournament appearance this season.

Jim Hayford has been n hired as the coach at Seattle, leaving Eastern Washington after six seasons. He replaces Cameron Dollar, who was fired earlier this month after eight seasons at Seattle. Hayford took EWU to the NCAA tournament in 2015.

UMass hired Matt n McCall as its new coach. McCall spent the previous two seasons in Chattanooga, where he led to the school to the NCAA tournament in his first season in 2016. The hiring is the second in two weeks for the Minutemen, after former Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey backed out of an agreement to coach the program.