The Ladies are the host team tonight in the Ally Tipoff at Charlotte Coliseum at 8 PM. The game will be televised on ESPN2. The #8 Hokies play the #3 Iowa Hawkeyes led by Caitlin Clark. The Hawkeyes lost the championship game to LSU last year 102-85 after the Hokies lost to LSU in the semifinal 79-72. We lost by 7; they lost by 17. By the infallible transitive property of basketball scoring, we would have beaten them by 10 last year.
Both teams have made some changes. They lost Monika Czinano and McKenna Warnock who contributed 28 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. And also lost Shateah Wettering, who did not play much, to the portal. They added Kylie Feuerbach a 6' redshirt Jr who was out last year with an injury and 2 freshmen.
The Hokies lost TSoule and Keyana Traylor, who contributed 21.9 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. We added Carleigh Wenzel, who redshirted last year and Matilda Ekh, 6' Jr from Michigan State; Rose Micheaux, 6'2 Jr from Minnesota and Olivia Summiel, 6'2 Grad Student from Wake Forest.
They lost more production than we did; and I think our additions will contribute more than theirs. Although, it's always hard to estimate how much bench players from last year will improve as starters this year. It's also tricky to guess how much, or if, freshmen will contribute. We have 5 freshmen and a RS sophomore who have not played a college game until this year. They have 2 freshmen.
Here is the Iowa roster for this year:
For comparison, here is our roster this year:
If the High Point game is any indicator, Matilda Ekh and Rose Micheaux are going to bring the scoring and rebounding that we lost with TSoule and Traylor. It's hard to say whether the Ekh and Micheaux match the competitiveness and energy Soule and Traylor brought to the team.
Their three returning starters, Clark, Martin and Marshall, averaged 41.9 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. Our three returning starters, Kitley, Amoore and King, averaged 42.8 points and 17.3 rebounds per game. Bear in mind that Iowa scored 87.3 ppg and we scored 72.4 ppg last year.
We will have the tallest, by 3", and the shortest, by 3", starters in the game. Kitley's 3" advantage is important; Amoore's 3" difference may not be as significant as she is adept at getting her shot off against taller defenders.
I think Caitlin Clark will probably be hard to stop; but I don't think Iowa has enough support for her that they can stay with the Hokies. That being said, if Amoore, King or Ekh has an off night, we could be in trouble. And there's always a concern that fouls may play a factor. King will probably guard Clark most of the night and that could affect her energy on offense and may lead to fouls causing her to sit.
This game is too early in the season to have a real feel for how either of these teams are going to play. Iowa has a slight advantage in that their players have been in their system for a while. The Hokies have to merge the transfers into the team chemistry. Coach Brooks was happy with their progress after the High Point game; but Iowa is a much tougher challenge. So far it sounds like the transfers are more like TSoule and Traylor than Owusu. If they buy into Brooks' system and the team concept, this could be a very good year for VT Women's BBall.
Go Hokies!
Comments
LETS GO!!!!
Hokies!!!
Really hoping Georgia busts out one of these with a win...
I think we will see Ekh on Clark more so than King. She defended her fairly well last year when was at Michigan St, but I expect them each to take turns to throw fresh bodies at her.
It would be really great if Ekh turns out to be as good a defender as King. Very few teams have two hard to guard players and if King and Ekh can trade off, they'll both be fresher on both defense and offense. Not to mention that Clark, or whoever, will have to work harder against two fresher defenders.
#1 player vs a top 15 duo tonight according to ESPN
https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/38848045/womens-college-basketball-ranking-top-25-players-2023-2024
Got to be the force anyone else to shoot game, especially how Iowa shot in the first game
Or do the Erick Green and let Clark get hers while shutting down the other 4 on the court.
Stats you need to know:
Iowa has a lot more players than we do.
Picture of Iowa going through warm ups in Charlotte:
Comparing the two rosters, with the following rating scale:
A: Player of the Year Candidate/Winner
A-: All-American Candidate/Team
B+: All-Conference POY Candidate/Winner
B: All-Conference Team Candidate/Team
B-: 5-star Incoming Freshmen, Non-Major Conference All-Conference POY
C+: 4-star Incoming Freshman, Non-Major Conference All-Conference Team
C: 3-star Incoming Freshman
C-: All other scholarship players
D+: Walk-ons
(A-B include at some point in their careers)
Iowa Starting Five: 2.56
Clark A
Stuelke C+
Goodman C
Marshall C
Martin C
Iowa 10+ minute Bench: 2.18
O'Grady C+
Davis C+
Feuerbach C+
McCabe C+
Affolter C-
Virginia Tech Starting Five 3.06
Kitley A
Micheaux B
Ekh B
King: C
Amoore B+
Virginia Tech 10+ Minute Bench: 2.22
Summiel C
Wenzel C+
Baker C+
Strack C+
Adding Suffren (C+) to give us an even 5 vs 5 bench comparison would increase Tech's bench score to 2.24.
Wenzel took issue with that C+, lol
Iowa looks like they are going small fast ball with their lineup.
Absolute war of attrition between FSU and Tennessee
Starting the game with a Yellowstone Bourbon Old Fashioned.
Hopefully, I don't need to switch to swill on the next drink.
We seem like we are stuck in mud on offense.
Girls gotta settle down
Clark really does like to push off with her forearm.
seems her teammate #20 learned that trick from her.. except #20 doesn't get the star treatment and is getting called for pushing off
^^^This turned out to be the key early insight of the night!
Wenzel's first minute and they have her guarding Clark and she blocks her
I go to hokiesports for the live stats, and all I get is the boxscore for the highpoint game.
Wenzel got that dawg in her
Clark with the 5 step NBA travel couple of buckets ago. No call.
AMOORE
AMOORE FROM BLACKSBURG!!!!
Yesssssss!
Lol well shit that's a nice way to end the quarter
GEORGIA AMOORE. TAKE NOTE, REST OF THE NATION
HALF COURT 3!
THAT'S from the logo!!! LET'S GO!!!
HOKIES!
Take that Clark! Amore from downtown.
All day at the buzzer...wow
Not nothing but net from half court...🥵
I have to say, the silver tag on the back of the jersey collar signifying a Final Four trip does look good on maroon and orange
First Half Stats:
Iowa: 30.4 FG%, VT 38.9%
Iowa 11.1 3pt%, VT 33.3%
Iowa 0 Blocks, VT 3
Fouls 4/4
Iowa 4:2 ATO, VT 1:3
Wenzel needs to shoot more
some of these foul calls seem a bit ticky tack
A bit...?
Soft ass fuckin foul
Caitlin Clark getting superstar treatment by the refs.
Yup. By the commentators too. Looking at Clark is a foul.
Clark is arm barring all the way down to the bucket, but then they call foul on defender once she shoots.
Finally.
They're all doing it. Bout time heure calling it.
Wenzel needs to shoot more
With King and Ekh in foul trouble, she is the vital 3rd scorer right now.
WENZEL!
Wenzel is playing like a 6' Amoore
Wenzel is pretty darn good it seems.
Redshirt last year was a master move by Kenny Brooks
Random... Is anyone else having sound issues?
I was about to post the same thing. Seems to have cleared up since the commercial break for me
I was.
I'm not sure there's any worse officiating than womens college basketball.
And now Wenzel is in foul trouble
Cause every time Clark shoots they call a foul.
Why are there always 4 black shirts right under the basket? Quad teaming Kitley? (edit: seems like they're rebounding our misses far too easily)
Guess we're just supposed to gift layups to Clark the entire game.
Arm bar and then once Wenzel is close she's called for a foul. This is ridiculous
So it's just a foul every time Clark touches the ball?
End of the half is bringing up a lot of Final Four flashbacks and how we just sucked in the 4th quarter against LSU
Where is the inside post up game with kitley?
Shots need to fall!
Asked & answered!
I'm gonna say it (and I'm salty about it)... Caitlin Clark is very good. The officials are making her look great.
Again...any little touch is a foul
I think foul trouble is going to be our undoing in this game...Clark is getting ALL KINDS of calls
This is what I fear will happen. We just don't have the bench for this kind of foul calling.
Kenny Brooks needs to get T'd up here at some point... One of the most lopsided games I've seen in quite some time.
just like in the postseason, I think if he does that, he loses a lot of respect from his team. His whole mantra is staying calm and composed.
be nice to know what the foul situation is. Can't get stats on HokieSports.
Hokies still have the advantage in FG%, 34.3 to 33.3
3 Pointers is not a question right now: Hokies 31.3% to Iowa's 6.7%
FTs, Hokies advantage 83.3 to 75.
Still only 1 assist though
Blocks are 5-1 in favor of Tech.
Fouls are about even 11-10 in favor of Iowa.
Clark vs Amoore is living up to the hype. Both with 18, but on two fewer shots by Amoore, and Amoore is trashing her from range so far 4 of 8 to 1 of 7.
where are you getting these stats?
ESPN
thanks
espn for me
thanks
Clark is basically swimming with her left arm every time she drives. If someone slapped me as much as she's swiping at our players, I'd start slapping back.
If they're gonna call a foul anyway.....i say earn it and send her ass to the floor.....hard.
Amoore,Ekh and King with two fouls. Wendell with 3.
ESPN box score is working.
thanks
Hey man I hear you can get the stats on espn
yeah, I heard about that. It's a shame I can't get them on HokieSports. Not a good web-site!
Honestly feel pretty good about that half. We've made some mental errors that Iowa has capitalized on, but think we are playing better as the team. Clark is interesting. I don't think she's that flamboyant as some, oh let's say, LSU players, but she has this quiet ego. Like Georgia hits a 3 and she immediately throws up a shot from 6 ft beyond the arc. Like "oh yeah, well look what I can do." I think the missed threes are messing with her a bit. If we can get a defender in front of her and take a charge (and especially if a ref would call the stiff arm), it could take her mentally out of the game
Yeah, we looked really tight for the first half of the first quarter. Then the team loosened up.
Brooks needs to change up the high screen for Amore as the last 3 possessions Iowa changed their defense and we turned it over.
Also need to get our moneys worth on the Clark fouls. If we're going to get called, she needs to feel it.
How do you defend the push off/arm bar? We can't get pressure and then get hit with ticky-tack fouls once they shoot. I'd say play her physical, but we're already in foul trouble and can't afford if they keep calling one-way.
When they finally called a couple on the other girl, we opened up a 7-point lead. But can't count on the refs to call it clean or consistently.
She needs a few hard fouls. Not sure who needs to handle that from a personnel standpoint, but if she's gonna stiff arm her way to the basket she needs to be feeling it tomorrow.
Somebody needs to be put in to specifically drive an elbow into her ear.
Gotta get kitley set up in the post better. Need points from Ekh, King, and Micheaux. Those 3 are 0-fer.
8 turnovers are too many for a half. especially when six of them were throwing the ball straight to them. need to be more crisp with the passing.
Amore >> Clark...
Both with 18 points, but the officials aren't putting Amore on the line like they are Clark.
Fuck....Friendly Fire
Well shit.
It'll be interesting to see how they manage to call a couple fouls on kitley while she's off the floor....
THESE CALLS ARE TRASH
Christ can we award the Oscar already?
Flop
Clark stiff arms and gets the whistle
Total horeshit.
This is getting ridiculous that was a blatant lowering the shoulder. Hurt Wentzel. Shouldn't allow that shit.
Someone needs to foul Clark.....HARD......and send a message.
Caitlin Clark so used to getting the call she had no idea what to do when she didn't. Haha...
That was a bad shot from Ekh
Ehk looks off to me. She seems clumsy or something. Doesn't look like she's running smoothly. Hard to describe.
That was so weak
Refs helping out since shot clock was winding down
I'm at a loss for words honestly... This is soooo bad. Not sure how we are still in this game with the way it's being called.
This game would be so much better without the refs.
Credit to the VT fans in attendance for vocalizing their disdain for the refs. Hopefully they realize they can't bail out Clark every single drive.
If this game we called fairly we'd be up by at least 10.
25 fouls called total before the 4th quarter is insane
Ekh needs some work
Not impressed by Ekh at all tbh.
Nice flop Clark.
This is just complete bullshit.
Three grab Kitley but let's wait to whistle after the turnover
Tuned in right after halftime. It's kind of rude of all these ladies in white to be on the same court as Clark, who is also Christ reincarnated according to the announcers.
How many steps there?
5!
Clark shoves Amoore out of the lane. No call.
And these commentators have spent the whole fucking game jerking Clark off.
Elbow extends every time, this is stupid
Might have been a good game if we didn't get a foul called when we looked at Clark.
Ref was in motion calling that foul before either player left the floor.
Ekh out of position again
Anybody see Clark trip the defender to open the 3?
Funny enough when she gets to the W. They'll eat her alive with this game.
We need to go LSU on them and just go hard at them every play. They're going to call fouls anyway. Might as well tire them out a bit.
The powers that be apparently need this game to go inn a certain direction. It's embarrassing.
Kitley is just not doing well.
Fuck these officials. Clark has committed offensive fouls on every drive and all the calls are going against us. She shoved Wentzel into the Stanton at the start of the 3rd quarter and Wntzel was called for the foul.
Kitley having her worst night in about three years
I love her, but she's still far too finesse to have a great game every night out.
She's also playing with a concussion.
Seriously? Was this reported before the game?
No from King's forearm to the face 5 minutes ago
Gotcha...
I wasn't sure what the reference was. However, she was playing this way before the hit. She's amazing! She just isn't terribly physical.
Best competition/ worst refs in that time too
Love how Iowa has this hurt look in their face whenever there is a foul call against them. "like who, us?"
CMY must have coached this girls on rebounding for this game..... We've got the shoot and run gameplan.
Refs are absolutely abysmal and giving Clark the Lebron treatment, but we honestly should be running a second defender at her every time she crosses half court to get the ball out of her hands. Make her scrub teammates hit shots, which they won't do. Kind of mind boggling we haven't been doing this at all really.
This is where I am. Clark has half of Iowa's points. Make her pass the ball.
Absolutely awful officiating. Fuck it we win by 3 anyway.
Time to fuckin roll ladies. Get busy winning. Fuck Iowa. When you foul, foul em hard. Kitley needs to get rolling in the post here in the 4th.
These fucking commentators gushing over Clark's long 3.....umm.. amoore made one from past half court.....
Double Double for Kitley
Damn it...Ekh is awful at getting lost following her offensive match...
Wow that was a walk by Iowa big in lane before Clark's shot
Finally for Ekh
BOUT FUCKING TIME
Finally called it on her. Look on her face was hilarious
Yeah! The "I've been doing this all game and it's a foul now".
Ekh turnover there could be game. Too slow
Ekh is killing us ...broken record but it's over and over
WHY DO WE KEEP SWITCHING OFF OF CLARK
R-fr mistake by Wenzel. It happens
It's not just her. King did it, too
Think you're being a touch harsh, she hasn't been great, but she's been asked to guard the best player in the country all night, we don't really have anyone else who can guard her who isn't in foul trouble
It's as much on offense as defense so not really. 3-10 and 1-7 from 3. Most of her defensive miscues have been when she switched off Clark.
The Ladies are getting mugged out there for no calls. These announcers were sucking up to Iowa before the game even started.
Amoore "bothered" on the shot. You mean slammed into the post.
I will admit Clark is a heck of a shot, but she gets away with murder.
She has a great three point range/shot. But her drive game is extremely illegal.
Yeah it's not really fair when they give her the treatment she got tonight. Hope we see them again with some better officiating.
Not to mention they can mug us for a "steal" but we foul when we look at them.
You can never beat the refs
Good night all....can't watch this trash officiating anymore.
Not sure why the girls think it's OK to sag off Clark outside.
The last 10 minutes or so has been some of the worst defense I've ever seen.
Pushes off the entire way from corner to other side of the basket, then call the foul on our defender for falling backward.
we don't have a lock down defender. someone who can play deny, deny, deny and keep the ball away.
It's King but the officials called back to back fouls on her in the early 1st quarter.
Pretty amazing that the Lady Hokies get to play in a game like this early in the season. It's a testament to what Kenny Brooks is doing with the program.
It's gonna take a minute for the roster to settle in and for the girls to gel. Once they do, I think this team could be better than the Final Four team from last season.
But no matter what, we would never win this game with the way it has been officiated. The NCAA either has an agenda or they should be horribly embarrassed.
Theoretically these should have been neutral ref's on a neutral court. They have been anything but.
I wanna annihilate these announcers.
You mean the Clarknouncers?
😜😜😜
Love how they don't show Clark's highlights when she's driving and pushing off.
Amoore needs to shoot as much as Clark.
Of course there's a foul call when Clark shoots.
Clark missed a FT. Has to be a foul, right?
We may not win this game but in reality it means nothing. We will learn we need to be tougher. We need to work on getting Kitley the ball closer to the basket. She's not as effective 12 feet out. The team will get more and hopefully the bench will develop more than last year.
We need to learn from this game. Can't let our silly mistakes happen. Play with some tempo. Be more physical on the inside.
"Need to be tougher" is my takeaway too. It cost us against LSU in the final four and it cost us tonight (plus the officials fellating Clark almost as bad as the announcers and every single person who works for ESPN).
Micheaux is not fitting in well to start the season, I think we may be better off having her come off the bench for Kitley and play the natural 5 more, and let Wenzel into the starting lineup. Not to her disservice, but the 4 is not working for Micheaux.
Wenzel really impressed. She should play fast when she in. Good compliment to Amoore and inside/outside game with Kitley.
Amoore got fouled on that three pointer, no call.
Put a 22 jersey on her and they call it before she shoots.
The difference in this game is the FT line. They've doubled us on the line for an extra 6 points.
Also 8-2 on steals in favor of iowa.
We countered that 6-1 on blocks
Touche....
Those weren't steals, they should be filing police reports for the mugging the girls got tonight.
...and when your three point shooters are on the bench for tacky fouls against Clark.
It's the same image
Clark has 13 FTA to our 8
10 to our 7 FTM
I would not be upset if you take away that 3 point difference right now, down 4.
In the end. 18-22 for them. 7-8 for us.
14 more attempts for them.
I would have to assume that if you gave ANY of our players 14 attempts, we score 5 to win.
at least 6? 8? of those were the tactical fouls at the end of the game
Don't just foul. Foul going to a steal.
Final TO to advance? Advance where? This is a regular season game.
Advance up court
Yep, like the nba.
If I'm not mistaken, the O/U had moved to 152 right before tipoff.
I took it at 150.
Clark might have 40, Amoore has played better in every aspect except drawing fouls.
Put some respect on Georgia's name, jesus
Clark played great through contact...yeah, that she created
Girls showed out. fuck the refs. We'll be there in March
I take this Hokies team any day over this Iowa team. We just don't have the bench to absorb that many fouls early in the game.
4 point loss....not bad
Very proud of our ladies tonight. Played a great game. Overcame adversity and fought back. Which the refs would have called a clean game.
This game shouldn't hurt us in the standings much. Got some good information on our new players. Ekh didn't look good in this game, Wenzel looked good!
The fact Clark was able to get the inbound after every time out at the end sucks. At some point you've got to deny the best player the ball and force it to go somewhere else.
We hung tough, but the refs, Clark, spells of shaky defense, and a non-dominant outing by Kitley did us in. I think we'll keep growing, fine-tune our rotation, and have a strong chance at another FF run.
I can't believe we're calling 16 points and 16 rebounds by Kitley a "non-dominant outing"
She scored 10 points in the fourth quarter which is what you would hope your best players can do at crunch time.
That's fair, "non-dominant outing" is perhaps a stretch, but she was pretty invisible from the beginning of the 2nd quarter till the 4th. Iowa's center did a great job of throwing her body around and disrupting Kitley from getting to her spots and keeping her off balance. In a top 10 matchup on national television against a team with the best player in the country, you need your All American to show out and have a dominant game to win. Certainly not taking anything away from her and she did take a hell of a shot to the face as well.
She'll keep doing Kitley things and the next time we're in a fight like this, she'll come out and put on a show, that I have no doubt about.
The refs were too busy watching Clark to see them mugging Kitley and the other girls all night.
Kitley was 2-7 from the floor going into the 4th quarter. She had a great 4th quarter shooting 5-9. She also had nine rebounds in the 4th.
Our Lady Hokies lost to a one trick pony and the officials. This will be a great team come March. I love what Kenny Brooks is doing!
Hokies ladies played hard. This team will go deep in the tourney again this year.
Clark-Referees vs Amoore
Clark: 13/31 41.9%, 5/16 (31.3%) from 3 pt range 31 points = 1 point per shot taken
Amoore: 10/24 41.7%, 7/15 (46.7%) from 3 pt range 27 points = 1.125 points per shot taken
As I said earlier. Amoore outplayed Clark. If the ref's protected them equally it would have been a good game. As it was it was a frustrating game to watch.
Hate to say it. Absolute trash officiating. Just a joke. Feel good about the team. Let's win it all. GO HOKIES!!!
Amoore is a warrior 💪
Proud of these girls and ok with the outcome. Think we had a lot of positives and loved that they didn't give up, even down double digits with 4 minutes left. Plenty to work on though for the next couple of games, but really going to hold them to a high standard against LSU.
I think more consistency with the refs make this much closer. I think the public likes Clark so much because she embodies the "NBA Hero" player so much. At least a lot of comments I saw online were people being frustrated that they couldn't shut up about her. Georgia had a great game, Kitley recovered from a few frustrating quarters. I don't think this result changes the potential for this team.
Kitley effectively disappeared for the two middle quarters. No points, but some rebounds.
Don't understand pulling Kitley out on the post consistently. To many easy dishes underneath. I like what I saw. Not a great game by our best player and shit officiating. Lot of fixable stuff. Let's go.
She was drawing fouls but getting abused down low. So they push her out to screen for threes. It's a dilemma, but same thing happened in the LSU game last year when the refs let it get overly physical in the paint. She isn't a bruiser but has the nearly indefensible Nowitski fade away. We'll be alright
I'm excited to watch Wenzel grow on this team. She was great tonight. Really gave us some spark when we needed it.
Amoore and Kitely played their butts off, idc what people may say. King was hamstrung by two softtt calls in the beginning and took her out of her groove, but can play better. Wenzel can flat out play.
Need more out of Ekh and Micheaux, but they are the new additions to Kenny Brooks' team - hopefully non-conference can get them up to speed.
LSU game at the end of the month looms large (ugh)
We're going to be fine. In an evenly called game, we win by 15-20.
I was lucky enough to attend the game, and man it was a great atmosphere. Both fanbases really showed out. The officiating was as egregious in person as I bet it was on TV. Despite all that, we were evenly matched and had a 4-point loss to a high caliber team that likely makes another deep tournament run. This game showed that the VT women's team is as good, or even better than we thought they would be this season. Let's have another season for the history books!
The wife and I just finished watching and it was a fun game. Agreed on the officiating although it appeared to us to even out in the second half and just be bad for both teams. For me it was two things... our refusal to double Clark as soon as she got the ball on the perimeter and force somebody else to beat us and Kittley basically being absent offensively. Iowa was doing to Kittley in the post what I wanted us to do to Clark on the perimeter. It took Kittley three quarters to figure out that she needed to attack right away once getting the entry pass. Anyway, we are good and are going to do some damage this year. Amoore is an absolute baller. We love watching her.
Honestly that's been a Kitley weakness her entire time here. Too much attempting to finesse rather than bully. Hopefully this was a wake up call.
I noticed that she did start to bully a lot more down lowduring the fourth quarter and shocked that she almost had a double-double in the fourth quarter alone.
without reading thru this thread; one thing i think i noticed about the officiating (and i saw this in the tournament last year), officials will let ball handlers fend off the d with their off hand seemingly much more so than the men's game and will call a foul on relatively little contact while shooting (while others on the floor are sometimes being mugged).
Clark drew most of her fouls driving to her right. she uses her left arm/elbow a lot to maintain leverage and draw fouls. she's can obviously go to her left and score, but seldom goes to the line..her scoop shot isn't available. in women's ball, i'd be overplaying any opposing ball handler all night long. and I'd happily give Clark 13-31; it was the 17 FTs that were killer
if I'm Liz, i'm keeping my off shoulder on the defender in the right side post, go to the hoop come hell or high water...save the finesse game for the left side
hey, TKP stats people. Can I get a count of how many drives Clark had where she clearly committed an offensive foul? How many of those resulted in defensive foul calls? Total point swing?
yes, I am still bitter the morning after...
That's her game. They let her get away with it mostly but it's frustrating.
I watched with my Gamecock wife (USCe lost to Iowa in final four last year) with a similar deal.
But on the other side, as others mentioned we have to toughen up. The NCAA is letting the women play rough.
the histrionics were notable one time she got called late in the game...probably because it's almost never called
Due to other activities, I jut read this thread today (Nov 13th) but I can't believe no one used this meme in the game thread....
Guess last night was the makeup call. ..
NCAA review findings: Title game officiating for Iowa vs LSU national championship game falls below expectations.
AP summary: "An NCAA review has concluded that the officiating in the national championship game between LSU and Iowa fell short of expectations. The review was pushed up to this summer after criticism about the calls in the game. LSU beat Iowa for its first national title. NCAA vice president for women's basketball Lynn Holzman says officials were graded on the accuracy of their calls and the overall number was lower than it should have been. She says work will be done to improve."
Full AP story:
The national championship game in women's basketball last spring was unforgettable for a lot of good reasons. LSU beating Iowa for its first title. A record television audience of nearly 10 million viewers. The spicy intensity between star players Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.
The game will also be remembered for its controversial officiating and The Associated Press has learned that an NCAA review concluded the refereeing did not meet expectations.
The organization had planned a review of NCAA Tournament officiating after the 2024 championship concludes next April, but it was sped up by a year after criticism of the LSU-Iowa showdown.
NCAA vice president for women's basketball Lynn Holzman said the officials were graded on the accuracy of their calls and the overall accuracy number fell short.
"In the championship game itself, for example, we typically have a performance that I think is 91% historically," she said. "In that game, the percentage of correct calls was below that, around 88%. That's factually the case."
The NCAA did not provide the review or details to the AP, but an independent review of LSU-Iowa done by an official who did not participate in the game found the percentage of correct calls was much lower than 88%. (Out-of-bounds violations were not included as part of the independent analysis; it was unclear if they are included in the NCAA figure.)
According to the independent review, mistakes made during the game included a foul on Reese at the end of the first quarter that was her second of the game. In the third quarter, two offensive fouls were missed, one on each teams. Both resulted in video monitor reviews but neither ended up in penalizing the offensive player, said the official, who did the review for AP only on condition of anonymity because they feared the criticism could impact their career.
The 88% correct call rate was on par with the rest of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, but not ideal for the most important game of the season.
"Officiating across the board is a concern for people," said North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart, president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association who added that she hoped the findings would be shared with coaches. "Doing that assessment was a good step showing that they are trying to address it."
The NCAA review was conducted by the Pictor Group. It offered six observations and recommendations that include better education and training for the NCAA women's basketball committee and subcommittee on officiating, selecting crews and assigning the referee and crew chiefs.
"They felt that the national officiating program is run with integrity and there's no question around any of that," Holzman said. "They identified areas we can be better."
The NCAA updated its rulebook over the summer. One change, had it been in place last year, would have impacted the title game:
Players now will no longer be charged with a technical foul for certain delay-of-game violations like the one given to Clark late in the third quarter because she didn't pass the ball to an official after a foul was called. Since it was the second delay-of-game violation for Iowa, Clark was charged with a technical — her fourth foul of the game.
"Our committee is going to get a specific education about how we evaluate officials and this is what we're looking at," Holzman said. "The committee is going to be trained up."
Holzman noted the review was only about the NCAA Tournament and that individual conferences govern their officials during the regular season.
For the upcoming NCAA Tournament, there will once again be 116 officials working along with five alternates. An additional 94 officials will be selected for the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitational Tournament. This will allow the opportunity for more officials to gain postseason experience. In the past, some of the NCAA Tournament officials would also work WNIT games. Last year was the first time the NCAA had all-female crews for the semifinals and final.
Clark just drew another foul.
and one of our players limped off the court after violently assaulting Clark's elbow with her kidney.
I can only assume that Kitley getting hit in the face impacted her game, but for as good as she is, I would love to see her get more aggressive and assertive in the paint.
Kenny Brooks has done a phenomenal job with this program, but his Achilles heel will continue to be overall depth and/or not trusting his bench.
Hopefully something he can develop throughout the year.
Well due to the refs protecting Clark breathing room, our bench got a fair amount of minutes last night. They should get some more against our Non-Conference opponents. I wonder when Wenzel is going to replace #4 as a starter.
I like Summiel as a starter, if we need a big.
She is very active on the glass
As much as it sucks, hand checking on drives always gets called in college basketball. Men's or Women's game, its the same thing, if you drive the paint, you're going to draw calls. If you post up, they will swallow whistles.
Yes, there was a lot of BS that was called last night, but that is college basketball, and its always been that way. We can bitch and moan all we want, but the game isn't going to change anytime soon, so either we adapt to the way these games are called, or we are going to waste opportunities on the biggest stages. Last night followed a very similar trend to what eliminated us in the Final Four last year where we stopped driving the paint and resulted to jump shots while the opponent took it to us, and we were overwhelmed. And its a very similar refrain to what has ended a lot of our runs on the men's side. When we aren't hitting open shots, we don't have the physical offensive game to hold back a team that drives the ball to the paint.
100%
Yes, a superstar like Clark will get calls - but if the refs are whistle happy on drives...drive the ball more.
Still and all, an interesting game, and a fun game for most of it. I think Kitley just isn't built mentally or physically for the roll of "bully", but she's a damn fine player who consistently produces and I love her game. Sneaky stats, right? You think, man, she's not in the game tonight, then she ends up with a solid double double and a handful of blocks and altered shots. But a bully? Nah, that just ain't her.
Clark is the real deal, ref aided or not. I'd much rather hang out with Amoore, but can't deny talent. Can't enjoy her talents when she's sticking the Hokies in the gut, but at least she doesn't play for UVA. Or Duke.
He was entirely correct when he said Iowa pushed them off their mark. Literally pushed them...