Langford rips call

Jayhawk junior: 'I didn't foul him'

? Keith Langford doesn’t need to see a replay.

He’s certain he was banished to the bench because of a rotten call by official Jim Burr with 3:44 left in overtime of Sunday’s 79-71 Elite Eight loss to Georgia Tech at Edward Jones Dome.

“I think it was a horrible call. I didn’t foul him. If anything, he fouled me,” Langford said of an offensive foul called as he allegedly pushed off on Georgia Tech’s Isma’il Muhammad while dribbling the basketball past the three-point arc.

“It’s very unfortunate that the referee 80 feet from the play called the foul rather than the ref that was right there on top of things. Big games down the stretch … I always thought you let the players decide.

“If that referee is reffing one of our games again next year … I don’t know, I’ll be sure to let him know how I feel.”

It was dejvu for Langford, who fouled out with 5:36 left in last year’s national-title loss to Syracuse after Billy Edelin stumbled into Langford, who was playing defense.

“I’m bitter about it because last year in the Syracuse game … I’ve watched that foul so many times, it wasn’t even a foul. It’s frustrating to end that way,” Langford said. “There’s nothing I can do to bring it back. The referee has to live with it.”

He didn’t blame the loss totally on the refs.

“The better team always wins, and you can’t take anything away from their effort and how hard they played,” said Langford, who fouled out with the game tied at 68. “You can’t take anything away from Jarrett Jack. He had a hell of a game, but I honestly feel if the refs let teams play, the outcome would have been totally different. I hate fouling out. There were times I fouled and it was actually a foul, but at that point in time of the game it was brutal.”

Kansas' Keith Langford, front, shoots against Georgia Tech's Anthony McHenry in the first half. Langford was 0-for-4 in the first 20 minutes of Sunday's game.

Of the foul, KU coach Bill Self said: “It was a big call. I’d have to watch the film. From our perspective, it looked marginal.”

Obviously, losing Langford hurt KU a lot. He’s KU’s best defender.

“I think that may have been the changing part of the game right there,” J.R. Giddens said. “We need him so much, and he’s out of the game. Crap happens.”

“He plays with so much heart,” Aaron Miles said, “of course it’s big, but I had confidence in Mike Lee as well.”

Lee also fouled out after hacking Jack with :46.8 seconds left.

“We didn’t get a very good whistle toward the end of the game,” Wayne Simien said.