Questionable technical foul on Viktor Lakhin may have ended Clemson's season early

Atrocious rebounding, poor offensive flow, and settling for bad shots led to the massive 18-point halftime deficit for Clemson basketball on Thursday afternoon and while the Tigers were in the midst of a little comeback in the second half, a poor judgement play by Viktor Lakhin may have ended the season early.

While Lakhin's technical foul with the Tigers down double-digits in the second half was obviously not the nail in Clemson's season or the reason they lost, it did kind of shut the momentum down.

The Tigers did claw back and make it a 10-point game shortly after, but losing a big man like Lakhin who could be in there for paint buckets and rebounding did not help. He picked up his fourth foul on the missed dunk that led to his technical foul as he joked in the face of a McNeese player following that unsuccessful slam.

The call was questionable, at best.

Obviously you have to keep your composure better than this if you're Lakhin, but saying something to the guy and laughing after he just tried to dunk on you shouldn't result in a tech. He wasn't getting in the player's face nor was he pushing or shoving. He probably said something to the effect of "try harder next time" while laughing and the ref took it upon himself to affect the game.

Refs should not hold this much power in late-game situations like this and they have to be held accountable for making these decisions in a high-energy, high-emotion game.

Kids talk a little bit, it happens. You can't call a tech in that situation. Let them play, let them talk.

Unless Lakhin said something egregious (and judging by his reaction, he didn't), then he should never have gotten that tech after his fourth foul which likely ended his college career on the spot.

I don't love that call and most basketball fans didn't, either.