(Iowa City, IA) – The NCAA’s review of last year’s officiating of the Women’s Basketball Championship game between LSU and Iowa has been marked as a controversial game for a number of reasons. The Associated Press learned that the NCAA said that the officiating “fell short” in the title game.
The vice president of women’s basketball for the NCAA, Lynn Holzman, said in a statement, “In the championship game itself, for example, we typically have a performance that I think is 91% historically. In that game, the percentage of correct calls was below that, around 88%. That’s factually the case.” The independent review of the officiating in the game was much further below 88% but agreed with the NCAA’s review on multiple points.
In the independent review, they concluded that there were multiple offensive fouls missed including two in the third quarter alone, one on each team. Another was a foul call on Reese at the end of the quarter which would’ve been her second of the game that was missed by the officials. The call rate was compared with other games in the NCAA Tournament with an 88% rate but should’ve been higher for the title game.
Over the course of the summer, the NCAA updated its rulebook that would’ve changed a call that impacted Iowa in the final game. A player will no longer be charged with a technical foul for delay-of-game violations. This refers to the call made against Iowa’s Caitlin Clark as she didn’t give the ball to the official after the foul was called which not only resulted in a technical foul but put her to a total of four fouls in the third quarter.
The NCAA Tournament was the only thing that was under review by the NCAA as conferences utilize their officials in regular-season games. In the NCAA’s upcoming tournament, there will be 116 officials and five alternates with an additional 94 officials for the Women’s NIT. We will see how this review and the rule changes impact the 2023-24 basketball season.
