Notre Dame/UConn Thread
 

Not sure how into women's basketball everyone on this forum is, but I personally am very excited for this battle of undefeateds. Except for Doris Burke's commentary. :(

Crew:

Dee Kantner (former NBA official)
Lisa Mattingly
Denise Brooks

Two of these seem to work the Finals every year.

Peace

Kantner worked the ND/UConn semifinal last year, and she is the R in what seems like every big game I watch on TV.

Bballref -

Had this conversation with a friend who works NCAA-W. I suggested that of the
40 men that worked a sweet 16 or Elite 8, that all 40 were good enough to work the final...

I dont feel that this is the case on the women's side and my friend agreed.....

Your thoughts ????

Would also be curious to what JMF thinks......

Doris Burke after two clearly correct foul calls: "The officials are not off to a good start. Don't put stars on the bench." Basically advocating star treatment.

I'm done...

I will say that in all the finals I can remember in recent years, it has been all-women crews. Coincidence or no? I wouldn't know...

Kantner I bet worked the Finals game about 3 years in a row at one point. Again I do understand, but that seems too much. There is not another official, man or woman that can work that game too?

This is kind of why I never really wanted to ever pursue Women's college officiating. It seems like only a certain few even get a shot. And it is too predictable.

Peace

I love my mute button.....although I think that was a WEAK offensive foul call.....

But my question is more depth related.....of the 40 officials to work the Sweet 16 and Elite 8, roughly how many were good enough to work the FF 4....

I wish I had an answer, that's a question for one of our NCAA-W guys. It wouldn't be right for me to guess on that...

I doubt any man will ever ref the women's final from now on.

Not a foul.

Nice.

Beautiful travel mechanic at 12:35 second half.

my bad, since you started thread, just thought you were on the women's side of things....

New Sec'y-Rules Editor
 

I work NCAA-W (but just D3). However, the male D1's I know certainly understand their 'role' in the women's game.

Wouldn't be shocked to see a slight shift in future years with a man at the helm starting next season...

What, to fill space until they can put 3 women on the game regardless of officiating talent?

And you wonder why many men stay away? This is partly why.

Peace

To say that offensive foul call (by Lisa Mattingly) was "weak", is an insult to the word "weak".

It was the "worst 1st foul of the game" call in the history of basketball…(hyperbole intended….) It was baaaaaaad.

Fortunately, it didn't affect the outcome.

What I find funny (ironic, stupid, whatever) is that at the expense of "equality" the selection appears more biased on the women's side AND it even appears overt in every manner. I advocate equality across all levels but the rate at which I see female officials advance, in a majority of cases, has more to do with sex than it does with skill. I wish that wasn't the case. It isn't a good incentive.

Twocents - On behalf of the word WEAK, would you be willing to accept my deepest apologies!!!!!

Reverse Sexism ???
 

Every girls state championship final (four school size classes) here in Connecticut has to have at least one female official on the floor (three person finals). 'Enough said.

For those wondering, here are the NCAAW Div. 1 Championship game crews since 2004:

2014: Lisa Mattingly, Dee Kantner, Denise Brooks
2013: Brenda Pantoja, Lisa Mattingly, Denise Brooks
2012: Dee Kantner, Tina Napier, Lisa Jones
2011: Dee Kantner, Michael Price, Tina Napier
2010: Eric Brewton, Dee Kantner, Lisa Jones
2009: Lisa Mattingly, Dee Kantner, Clarke Stevens
2008: Dee Kantner, Eric Brewton, Denise Brooks
2007: Lisa Mattingly, Michael Price, Tina Napier
2006: Lisa Mattingly, Bob Trammell, Tina Napier
2005: Lisa Mattingly, Melissa Barlow, Scott Yarbrough
2004: Bryan Enterline, Denise Kantner, Lisa Mattingly

Kantner = 7, Mattingly = 7, Napier = 4, Brooks = 3.

To answer the question originally posed: Yes, I definitely feel those 40 men could have worked worked the final. That being said I know what the limits are on my side of the ledger and I'm cool with it as are many of the men who do this. The opportunities are there at the lower divisions: There was a male on this year's Div. 2 women's championship, there were two males on the Div. 3 championship and two years ago the Div. 3 title game was an all-male crew (the incoming S/RE was one of the officials on that game). In terms of the nine people who end up running the court in the title games in the three divisions it generally balances itself out. I'm not saying it's perfect but again, I know what I've gotten myself into and I accept it.

Meantime, I look at my main HS league (NYC PSAL). There are a number of women who I know full well could have been put into my spot at MSG last year but weren't. That they didn't get any of the three spots had nothing to do with the fact they mainly work NCAAW/GV basketball because that's what I do. Heck, I worked 48 HS games this past season in NYC and 38 of them were GV but...one of my ten BV games was the NYC Class B championship. There are biases on both sides. Two wrongs definitely don't make a right but the women are correcting the (im)balance which has held them back and again, I'm cool with that.

I used to always joke about the "token male" on the floor. It's been since 2011 that we've seen even that in the title game.

It's obvious that either the males involved at the highest level of the game are OK with it or are smart enough to realize that there's nothing they can do about it.

Apology accepted!

"We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming"....which for me is avoiding my workplace responsibilities at all costs today...:)