Despite featuring two of women’s college basketball’s best players, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, and all of the hype that surrounded the Iowa Hawkeyes and LSU Tigers heading into the 2023 NCAA Women’s National Championship Game, all anyone wants to talk about is the referees.
It’s unfortunate but the referees in the national title game were universally panned by college basketball fans who watched the game, which was won by LSU for their first national championship.
Complaints about the refs started in the first half and only got louder as the game went on. The anger culminated late when Caitlin Clark was called for a technical foul over something that really didn’t seem appropriate, especially at this stage.
"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
Further driving people wild over the lack of need to call a technical foul there was a moment earlier in the game when LSU coach Kim Mulkey literally put her hands on a referee and was not assessed a foul for it.
If this isn’t a T, what is? pic.twitter.com/WDCcwyHFhP
— Andy Garman (@GarmanSports) April 2, 2023
Not that fans wanted to see even more calls from these referees but the fact that they were so wildly inconsistent between the two instances just drove home how ill-equipped they seemed to be for this kind of game.
“Kim Mulkey made contact with an official and nothing happened!” said Nicole Auerbach.
https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1642640459628441601
How did Clark get a technical but Kim Mulkey — who has been literally on the court for most of the game — has not??” Auerbach also asked.
Wait so did the refs just decide to let Kim Mulkey tell them what to do what on earth is going on,” said Charlotte Wilder.
Wait so did the refs just decide to let Kim Mulkey tell them what to do what on earth is going on
— Charlotte Wilder (@TheWilderThings) April 2, 2023
“Kim mulkey pushed a ref and it’s fine but Caitlin Clark got a tech and picked up her 4th foul for tossing a basketball behind her back ? Refs have been so bad,” said another Twitter user.
LSU was pretty dominant on Iowa but some questionable early calls, coupled with egregious ones like the technical, seemed to change the outcome of the game. It’ll be something college basketball fans will want to talk about for a long time to come.
