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Let's go to the replay
At first glance I thought Tuesday's UConn/Baylor game was one of most poorly officiated big games I can remember watching. Having taped the ESPN2 broadcast, it was actually more inconsistently called than it appeared live. Unfortunately, the recording stopped after 2 hours meaning I missed the two plays I wanted to see again - UConn's shot-clock violation and whether Odyssey Sims got her shot off before the final buzzer. I replayed the final seconds on ESPN3 but the quality was pretty poor.
As far as I can tell, Melissa Jones had possession of the ball with about five seconds to play which is 1 1/2 seconds after the shot clock should have expired. Obviously that leads to speculation whether Baylor should have been awarded possession of the ball rather than having to scramble up the floor for Sims' heave which was ruled to be after the final buzzer. Barb Jacobs, the Big East's Assistant Commissioner of Women's Basketball Officiating released a statement after the game which said "if the other team has the ball as the horn is going off, then it is a possession, there is no shot-clock violation."
With Baylor coach Kim Mulkey having blown her final timeout on the preceding inbounds pass, I'm not sure Baylor would have been significantly more organized but perhaps the Lady Bears would have been able to throw the ball over midcourt rather than Sims squandering valuble seconds dribbling the ball up the court. At worst, I would have thought the officials could have viewed that sequence on the video monitor to make sure they got it right.
Even before that final sequence, I found 19 calls that looked to be questionable at best which is an extraordinarily high number, probably three times the amount of calls I usually take exception to when I tape a game and play it back. It should be said that I am allowed only the one angle courtesy of the ESPN broadcast so some of the calls on the other side of the floor like Tiffany Hayes' reach-in foul were inconclusive and I can far from being a trained official but I am entitled to my opinion.
The most noteworthy calls or no calls are:
Stefanie Dolson's fifth foul when she and Griner were jostling for position. It was the first time I remember a foul being called before the ball was entered into the post and that is not the time for an out of the clear blue call.
The offensive foul Griner was whistled for late in the game was absolutely horrible. If they called that all game long, Griner would have fouled out before the first television timeout.
Samarie Walker's foul while blocking Kimetria Hayden's driving layup. Considering how much body contact the officials let go when Griner was blocking shots, they should have been consistent and not called it on Walker.
Hayden clearly getting fouled by Maya Moore on a drive to the basket. UConn ended up getting possession after the ball went out of bounds.
An atrocious tripping foul called on Hayes on Hayden's drive to the hoop resulting in her hitting the bottom of the basket with a layup.
To be fair, two calls I questioned looked to be correct. Moore assumed she was going to get her shot blocked and did go up and come back down with the ball late in the game resulting in a traveling and rightfully so.
Walker's illegal screen was exactly that. You can see her moving forward and initiating the contact.
All that being said, this is not an easy game to officiate because of the physical nature of both teams and if the teams meet in the NCAA tournament, I hope a better officiating crew gets assigned the game because other than Dee Kantner, the other two officials were over their heads.
All that being said, that was a fun game to cover and something tells me these teams may see each other again. If that is the case, two things will need to happen. First, Dolson and Walker will need to stay on the court and Baylor's perimeter players will need to act like they want to shoot the ball. Sims was the only one willing to take and make jumpers allowing UConn to cheat and make life difficult for Griner with players like Kelly Faris, Tiffany Hayes and Maya Moore clogging the passing lanes.
As far as I can tell, Melissa Jones had possession of the ball with about five seconds to play which is 1 1/2 seconds after the shot clock should have expired. Obviously that leads to speculation whether Baylor should have been awarded possession of the ball rather than having to scramble up the floor for Sims' heave which was ruled to be after the final buzzer. Barb Jacobs, the Big East's Assistant Commissioner of Women's Basketball Officiating released a statement after the game which said "if the other team has the ball as the horn is going off, then it is a possession, there is no shot-clock violation."
With Baylor coach Kim Mulkey having blown her final timeout on the preceding inbounds pass, I'm not sure Baylor would have been significantly more organized but perhaps the Lady Bears would have been able to throw the ball over midcourt rather than Sims squandering valuble seconds dribbling the ball up the court. At worst, I would have thought the officials could have viewed that sequence on the video monitor to make sure they got it right.
Even before that final sequence, I found 19 calls that looked to be questionable at best which is an extraordinarily high number, probably three times the amount of calls I usually take exception to when I tape a game and play it back. It should be said that I am allowed only the one angle courtesy of the ESPN broadcast so some of the calls on the other side of the floor like Tiffany Hayes' reach-in foul were inconclusive and I can far from being a trained official but I am entitled to my opinion.
The most noteworthy calls or no calls are:
Stefanie Dolson's fifth foul when she and Griner were jostling for position. It was the first time I remember a foul being called before the ball was entered into the post and that is not the time for an out of the clear blue call.
The offensive foul Griner was whistled for late in the game was absolutely horrible. If they called that all game long, Griner would have fouled out before the first television timeout.
Samarie Walker's foul while blocking Kimetria Hayden's driving layup. Considering how much body contact the officials let go when Griner was blocking shots, they should have been consistent and not called it on Walker.
Hayden clearly getting fouled by Maya Moore on a drive to the basket. UConn ended up getting possession after the ball went out of bounds.
An atrocious tripping foul called on Hayes on Hayden's drive to the hoop resulting in her hitting the bottom of the basket with a layup.
To be fair, two calls I questioned looked to be correct. Moore assumed she was going to get her shot blocked and did go up and come back down with the ball late in the game resulting in a traveling and rightfully so.
Walker's illegal screen was exactly that. You can see her moving forward and initiating the contact.
All that being said, this is not an easy game to officiate because of the physical nature of both teams and if the teams meet in the NCAA tournament, I hope a better officiating crew gets assigned the game because other than Dee Kantner, the other two officials were over their heads.
All that being said, that was a fun game to cover and something tells me these teams may see each other again. If that is the case, two things will need to happen. First, Dolson and Walker will need to stay on the court and Baylor's perimeter players will need to act like they want to shoot the ball. Sims was the only one willing to take and make jumpers allowing UConn to cheat and make life difficult for Griner with players like Kelly Faris, Tiffany Hayes and Maya Moore clogging the passing lanes.
posted by Jim Fuller at
11:07 AM
2 Comments:
Excellent detail in re-evaluating and re-grading the referees.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could please elaborate on your comment:
"At worst, I would have thought the officials could have viewed that sequence on the video monitor to make sure they got it right."
Would you have liked to see the officials blow the whistle and stop play when the Baylor player started dribbling after Maya Moore's freshman-like air ball? And then go to the instant replay monitor?
Or were the officials supposed to look at the instant replay monitor after the game clock struck 0?
If the officials determined the shot clock violation should have been called, would the players have to relive the last approximate 8 seconds like in the 1972 Munich Olypmics?
Thanks in advance for the clarification.
I'd like to see them get to call right. Once the game is over there's no reason why they couldn't review the play and make sure the proper call was made since timing issues are reviewable. They've reviewed in game shot clock issues before. They could determine that the proper call was made and Baylor had possession as the clock expired and game is over or they could give Baylor the ball about 80-85 from the UConn basket with 5 or 6 seconds to play.
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