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In the most eagerly anticipated women’s college basketball game of, well, ever, rather than getting to enjoy the amazing talents of players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, all anyone seemed to talk about was how horrific the referees were.
And they were. They were terrible. They completely ruined the fun that comes from watching great players play.
In baseball, they call it an ump show. In the NFL, fans shout “rigged!”
Now, in women’s college basketball, people are just saying “be better.”
Four of the game’s stars were either hindered by or completely out of the game thanks to several phantom fouls. Angel Reese sat out the entire second quarter. Iowa had three starters on the bench to begin the fourth quarter because of fouls. There were 37 fouls called in 40 minutes. 37! In a national title game!
Caitlin Clark got a technical, giving her four personal fouls, for … well, we’re still not sure, despite the officials’ explanation later.
"Here's the T on Caitlin Clark… I mean… you have GOT to be kidding me." – @RyanRuocco
"No player in this game should get a technical foul for that." – @RebeccaLobo pic.twitter.com/qQuJD6bUTz
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 2, 2023
Meanwhile, LSU head coach Kim Mulkey was allowed to roam around on the court for the entirety of the game and received … nothing.
https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1642640459628441601
It was, in a word, a sh*tshow.
Just ask John Adams, the former NCAA national coordinator of men’s basketball officiating.
“From a fan standpoint, there was enormous disappointment with how the game was officiated because the best players were not playing,” Adams told Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic after the game. “Having that level of officiating in that type of game, I think, really hurt the meteoric rise of women’s basketball. There is not perfect officiating anywhere ever, but, man, that was awful.”
A sellout crowd was on hand paying up to $400 a ticket and 9.9 million people tuned in to watch a women’s college basketball game. Think about that for a second.
“Adams, who headed up the men’s officiating program from 2008 to 2015, said he used to remind his Final Four officiating crews that the games were always better when the best players were playing,” Auerbach added. “It was the only time over the course of the entire tournament that he met with them personally — the reminder was that important.”
In other words, be better, NCAA.