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If there are any Women's NCAA refs who saw the end of the Tenn-Stanford regional final last night, I'd like their opinion of the out of bounds call that prededed the game winning basket by Tasha Butts. When I saw it live, it looked like the player from behind hit it out. I thought the replay was inconclusive, although the announcers said it was a good call (there's a first). The replay looked to me like both players touched the ball simultaneously, but I know refs don't have the luxury of reviewing replays.
It looked like the Stanford player was pulling the ball toward her, and the Tenn player was hitting it toward OOB. Physics would seem to indicate that the Tenn player caused it to go OOB, since the ball went out in the direction she hit the ball, but maybe it glanced off the Stanford player and I missed it. I didn't see the ref give the brush off signal that refs usually use to indicate a bang-bang play (sorry if the terminology is incorrect). I'm curious how refs at this level decide a call that is this close.
I know that you cannot be looking at everything at once, and on the rare occasions that I ref, it's usually a one-man game, so I don't even know who made that call ( I haven't seen the replay since the game, and I was watching the play, not the refs), but on a three man crew, how is a call like this made (assuming it is unclear who last touched the ball)? Do you call a jump and use alternating possession, do you figure that the player from behind must have caused it to go out, do you figure the front player fumbled the ball, do you confer with the other refs? Or is it always clear who last hit the ball and I need to get new glasses?
Thanks for your input. BTW, on the final shot by Nicole Powell, I thought that was a good no call, despite what Stanford is saying. If anything, Powell ran into the other player, so the foul would have been on her.
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