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Texas Women’s Basketball 2023-2024: Handing out ass whoopins and lollipops, and we’re all out of lollipops


Pancho

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Well the problem with the hotels is:

1.) I honestly don’t believe the Women’s and Men’s Selection Committees talk to each other about stuff like this. And from what I’ve gathered, the committees don’t tell the NCAA anything until they’ve selected the teams. 

But really it’s this:

2.) The Men’s selection sites are done a few years in advance. The NCAA can reserve those rooms for the 8 teams they know will be shipped there. With the Women, you have no idea who is going where until Selection Sunday (exceptions of course i.e. teams like Texas, Souf Carolina, Stanford, etc know they are hosting). With Gonzaga/Utah, they could have been flipped easily. But flipping those seeds is a big deal because of home advantage, which goes back to my point #1. Then the question becomes how ethical is it to flip seeds because there are no realistic hotel rooms available in the area for 8 more teams and their fans? 

I’ve just questioned why the NCAA is so enamored with Spokane as a host. Seems like they are hosting the men’s side all the time. Just keep it on a rotating basis of west coast major hubs—LA, Vegas, Portland, SLC, and Seattle. That would be like if they made Amarillo 1st and 2nd round host site

 

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Man some of the TV numbers were insane for the Round of 32

6 matchups had over 1 million viewers, with two of them above 2 million (MTSU-LSU and Syracuse-UConn) and WV-Iowa was 4.9 million

Alabama-Texas almost hit a million (950k), just behind Duke-Ohio State (965k) but well ahead of Nebraska-Oregon State (730k) and Colorado-KSU (760k).  And it was still 6th in viewership for Sunday.  

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There’s also been some chatter—albeit on social media—about women going back to neutral site games for the 1st and 2nd rounds considering the rise of popularity in women’s basketball since the last time they were doing neutral sites. I don’t know that this will happen again. The NCAA likes those sold our arenas the home team provides them in the 1st and 2nd rounds.

If anything, they’ll just move around the S16/EE games and rotate that. 

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18 minutes ago, Pancho said:

There’s also been some chatter—albeit on social media—about women going back to neutral site games for the 1st and 2nd rounds considering the rise of popularity in women’s basketball since the last time they were doing neutral sites. I don’t know that this will happen again. The NCAA likes those sold our arenas the home team provides them in the 1st and 2nd rounds.

If anything, they’ll just move around the S16/EE games and rotate that. 

They should not change anything.  NCAA MBB is the only team bracket sport that you don't get a home field/court advantage.  (And football, but that's changing with the addition of first round byes and home field for the beginning rounds of the CFP)

Future regional sites for WBB:

2025 - Birmingham and Spokane
2026 - Fort Worth and Sacramento

Honestly, I think I'd get rid of the 2 sites and go back to 4 sites - Northeast (Albany/Bridgeport/NYC), Southeast (Nashville/Birmingham/Orlando/Atlanta/Greensboro), Central (Dallas/Houston/San Antonio/Kansas City/Detroit/Chicago/Indianapolis) and West (Portland/Seattle/Spokane/Phoenix/Las Vegas/California)

If you did something similar this year - SCe would get the Southeast or Northeast, Iowa would get the Northeast or Central, Texas would get the Central or Southeast and USC would get the West

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I didn't like Portland to begin with and I certainly don't like it now. The distance from Spokane to Portland is about the same as Dallas to SA, and students at a small private school I'm sure will travel better than UT students. And I'm sure there's a lot of Gonzaga alum that end up in Seattle down to Portland. I just hope there's a significant number of UT alumni in that area also.

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https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39818577/womens-ncaa-basketball-transfer-rankings-2024-25-season

Kaitlyn Chen is really intriguing - one year rental, can run point and put Booker back into her natural position while Rori gets back to game shape.  She's not as proficient of a 3 point shooter (33%) but she's a high assist player with a lot of steals.  

We already mentioned Taliah Scott

Poffenbarger already committed to LSU, so I'm thinking the SEC intra-conference transfer rule is for football only. 

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7 hours ago, Hard Times said:

I didn't like Portland to begin with and I certainly don't like it now. The distance from Spokane to Portland is about the same as Dallas to SA, and students at a small private school I'm sure will travel better than UT students. And I'm sure there's a lot of Gonzaga alum that end up in Seattle down to Portland. I just hope there's a significant number of UT alumni in that area also.

I live in Portland but will be in Seattle on Friday, so I'll miss that game. I'm hoping we make it to the elite 8 so I can go on Sunday. Definitely a lot of Gonzaga people around here, and I've seen a fair number of Stanford stickers on cars. Texas got screwed on this location, but I'm excited to see them, if I can. 

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59 minutes ago, Grande Mart said:

I live in Portland but will be in Seattle on Friday, so I'll miss that game. I'm hoping we make it to the elite 8 so I can go on Sunday. Definitely a lot of Gonzaga people around here, and I've seen a fair number of Stanford stickers on cars. Texas got screwed on this location, but I'm excited to see them, if I can. 

Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be awesome weather here, so if anyone's coming up from Texas, should be a good weekend to visit Portland.

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Yep, getting lumped into the west coast regional with Gonzaga, Stanford, SC really sucks.  Which is why the NCAA needs to go back to 4 regional locations.  Even Vic thinks so.

Northeast
Southeast/Texas
Central/Midwest
West

Just checked - next year's MBB first/second round locations are Denver, Providence, Lexington, Wichita, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Raleigh, Seattle.  Only potential double dips with teams usually in WBB hosting contention are Colorado and Duke. 

2026 has a couple potential double dips too - Buffalo, Greenville (SCe), OKC (OU), Portland, Tampa, Philadelphia, San Diego, St. Louis

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Our Elite 8 matchup, if we move on, would be on Sunday.  We are on the same S16/E8 schedule as Albany 1, so I would hope they could start Albany 1 at like 5 and us at 7.  I'm going to be pissed if it's 9pm yet again... (it probably will be at least 8pm)

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We have a great chance.

Gonzaga is a lot like OU or ISU - run them off the three point line and beat them inside.  Notice that Texas did not press a lot against Bama - they hit some open threes in transition off turnovers, but we mostly game planned to take away the 3.  Our inside depth killed them

Stanford's inside game is good (Brink and Kiki) but their guards are a huge weakness. And you don't win in March with bad guard play, which is why Booker is so essential to how far we go. Also Brink is prone to foul trouble. 

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https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39829906/womens-march-madness-2024-sweet-16-predictions-ncaa-tournament

No. 4 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs vs. No. 1 seed Texas Longhorns

Friday, 10 p.m. ET, ESPN (Region 4 in Portland)

Why Texas will win: While Madison Booker is Texas' best player, the Longhorns' ability to dominate inside, especially on the glass, is what will get them to the Elite Eight. Offensive rebounding was the difference-maker against Alabama in the second round, and if Aaliyah Moore, Taylor Jones and DeYona Gaston can establish physical dominance, the Longhorns might be able to push around the Bulldogs. Look for the 6-1 Booker -- who is so adept at creating space for her midrange jumper -- to capitalize on her size advantage over the smaller Gonzaga guards, Kayleigh Truong (5-9) and Kaylynne Truong (5-8).

Why Gonzaga will win: The Zags are the most accurate 3-point shooting team in the country (40.1%) and made 12 of 28 against Utah. Texas can't beat Gonzaga in a shooting contest, despite being a solid 3-point shooting team itself. Yvonne Ejim is also the most productive and efficient post player in this game. Texas will undoubtedly try to get physical with her with multiple defenders. That's what Vic Schaefer teams do. But if Ejim can play effectively in multiple ways, she can drag the Texas bigs to the high post and be just as effective. That would largely negate the Longhorns' physicality. Gonzaga can pull the upset if it can open the court and play with pace.

What's the X factor: The defense of Texas' Shay Holle and Shaylee Gonzales against Brynna Maxwell and the Truong sisters will be important. Utah's guards had trouble matching up with all three. Eliza Hollingsworth, a 6-3 forward, was also left open too much. She's likely going to be more agile than the defender guarding her on the outside. The Texas strategy on how to handle all the Gonzaga perimeter options might decide this game. -- Creme

Which team will advance?

Adelson: Texas 81 Gonzaga 63
Creme: Texas 68, Gonzaga 65
Pelton: Texas 75, Gonzaga 68
Philippou: Texas 82, Gonzaga 66
Voepel: Texas 81, Gonzaga 71

 

The other games:

ND - Oregon State: 4-1 in favor of ND
SCe-Indiana - 5-0 in favor of SCe
NCST-Stanford - 4-1 in favor of Stanford
LSU-UCLA - 3-2 in favor of UCLA
CU-Iowa - 5-0 in favor of Iowa
USC-Baylor - 5-0 in favor of USC (fuck Baylor)
Duke-UConn - 5-0 in favor of UConn

Edited by Js1
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Utah may have had trouble with the Zag guards, but Utah is not as good defensively as Texas.  Not even close in most categories

Texas - 6th in rebound margin (Utah is 29th) - Texas is also one of only 6 teams who have a double digit rebound margin
Texas - 32nd in blocks per game (Utah is 258th)
Texas - 78th in steals per game (Utah is 131st)
Texas - 23rd in turnovers forced per game (Utah is 185th)
Texas - 83rd in FG% defense (Utah is 236th)
Texas - 195th in 3FG% defense (Utah is 305th)
Texas - 32nd in scoring defense at 57.4 ppg (Utah is 116th at 62 ppg)

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20 minutes ago, Js1 said:

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39829906/womens-march-madness-2024-sweet-16-predictions-ncaa-tournament

No. 4 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs vs. No. 1 seed Texas Longhorns

Friday, 10 p.m. ET, ESPN (Region 4 in Portland)

Why Texas will win: While Madison Booker is Texas' best player, the Longhorns' ability to dominate inside, especially on the glass, is what will get them to the Elite Eight. Offensive rebounding was the difference-maker against Alabama in the second round, and if Aaliyah Moore, Taylor Jones and DeYona Gaston can establish physical dominance, the Longhorns might be able to push around the Bulldogs. Look for the 6-1 Booker -- who is so adept at creating space for her midrange jumper -- to capitalize on her size advantage over the smaller Gonzaga guards, Kayleigh Truong (5-9) and Kaylynne Truong (5-8).

Why Gonzaga will win: The Zags are the most accurate 3-point shooting team in the country (40.1%) and made 12 of 28 against Utah. Texas can't beat Gonzaga in a shooting contest, despite being a solid 3-point shooting team itself. Yvonne Ejim is also the most productive and efficient post player in this game. Texas will undoubtedly try to get physical with her with multiple defenders. That's what Vic Schaefer teams do. But if Ejim can play effectively in multiple ways, she can drag the Texas bigs to the high post and be just as effective. That would largely negate the Longhorns' physicality. Gonzaga can pull the upset if it can open the court and play with pace.

What's the X factor: The defense of Texas' Shay Holle and Shaylee Gonzales against Brynna Maxwell and the Truong sisters will be important. Utah's guards had trouble matching up with all three. Eliza Hollingsworth, a 6-3 forward, was also left open too much. She's likely going to be more agile than the defender guarding her on the outside. The Texas strategy on how to handle all the Gonzaga perimeter options might decide this game. -- Creme

Which team will advance?

Adelson: Texas 81 Gonzaga 63
Creme: Texas 68, Gonzaga 65
Pelton: Texas 75, Gonzaga 68
Philippou: Texas 82, Gonzaga 66
Voepel: Texas 81, Gonzaga 71

 

The other games:

ND - Oregon State: 4-1 in favor of ND
SCe-Indiana - 5-0 in favor of SCe
NCST-Stanford - 4-1 in favor of Stanford
LSU-UCLA - 3-2 in favor of UCLA
CU-Iowa - 5-0 in favor of Iowa
USC-Baylor - 5-0 in favor of Baylor
Duke-UConn - 5-0 in favor of UConn

*logs into FanDuel*

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Moral of the story: Texas needs to run the Zags off the three point line, dominate the boards, HIT THEIR FUCKING LAYUPS and keep Gonzaga under 60-65 points and we are likely still dancing into Sunday. 

Gonzaga will have trouble with Booker's size, Holle will be stuck like glue to their best offensive guard and Texas can rotate bigs and fresh bodies with Jones, Gaston, Muhammad, Moore and Faye.  Texas will and should run some zone with Jak because of her length to frustrate the Gonzaga guards.  Minimize live ball turnovers that lead to transition threes.  Do not press - go back and set your defense after a made basket so they can't find an open shooter early in the shot clock

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1 hour ago, Js1 said:

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39829906/womens-march-madness-2024-sweet-16-predictions-ncaa-tournament

No. 4 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs vs. No. 1 seed Texas Longhorns

Friday, 10 p.m. ET, ESPN (Region 4 in Portland)

Why Texas will win: While Madison Booker is Texas' best player, the Longhorns' ability to dominate inside, especially on the glass, is what will get them to the Elite Eight. Offensive rebounding was the difference-maker against Alabama in the second round, and if Aaliyah Moore, Taylor Jones and DeYona Gaston can establish physical dominance, the Longhorns might be able to push around the Bulldogs. Look for the 6-1 Booker -- who is so adept at creating space for her midrange jumper -- to capitalize on her size advantage over the smaller Gonzaga guards, Kayleigh Truong (5-9) and Kaylynne Truong (5-8).

Why Gonzaga will win: The Zags are the most accurate 3-point shooting team in the country (40.1%) and made 12 of 28 against Utah. Texas can't beat Gonzaga in a shooting contest, despite being a solid 3-point shooting team itself. Yvonne Ejim is also the most productive and efficient post player in this game. Texas will undoubtedly try to get physical with her with multiple defenders. That's what Vic Schaefer teams do. But if Ejim can play effectively in multiple ways, she can drag the Texas bigs to the high post and be just as effective. That would largely negate the Longhorns' physicality. Gonzaga can pull the upset if it can open the court and play with pace.

What's the X factor: The defense of Texas' Shay Holle and Shaylee Gonzales against Brynna Maxwell and the Truong sisters will be important. Utah's guards had trouble matching up with all three. Eliza Hollingsworth, a 6-3 forward, was also left open too much. She's likely going to be more agile than the defender guarding her on the outside. The Texas strategy on how to handle all the Gonzaga perimeter options might decide this game. -- Creme

Which team will advance?

Adelson: Texas 81 Gonzaga 63
Creme: Texas 68, Gonzaga 65
Pelton: Texas 75, Gonzaga 68
Philippou: Texas 82, Gonzaga 66
Voepel: Texas 81, Gonzaga 71

 

The other games:

ND - Oregon State: 4-1 in favor of ND
SCe-Indiana - 5-0 in favor of SCe
NCST-Stanford - 4-1 in favor of Stanford
LSU-UCLA - 3-2 in favor of UCLA
CU-Iowa - 5-0 in favor of Iowa
USC-Baylor - 5-0 in favor of Baylor
Duke-UConn - 5-0 in favor of UConn

That’s a bit of a shock. Baylor is a 3 point betting underdog yet all the analysts predict  Baylor upset?

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Just now, perfectchaos007 said:

That’s a bit of a shock. Baylor is a 3 point betting underdog yet all the analysts predict  Baylor upset?

Whoops, meant to type USC.  They do not have Baylor winning

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I'd love to know if Texas had the choice of what game time they wanted or not.  Because 9pm is so fucking dumb. 

  • 2 seed Stanford plays at 6:30pm (4:30pm west coast time) while 1 seed Texas plays at 9pm central time.  Should be flipped.
  • 1 seed USC gets the 4:30pm (2:30pm west coast time) tomorrow while the 2 east coast teams (Duke/UConn) get the 7pm (8pm east coast) time.  Should be flipped.

NCAA / TV royally botched the TV times for the Sweet 16 games, men and women. 

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3 hours ago, Js1 said:

Moral of the story: Texas needs to run the Zags off the three point line, dominate the boards, HIT THEIR FUCKING LAYUPS and keep Gonzaga under 60-65 points and we are likely still dancing into Sunday. 

Gonzaga will have trouble with Booker's size, Holle will be stuck like glue to their best offensive guard and Texas can rotate bigs and fresh bodies with Jones, Gaston, Muhammad, Moore and Faye.  Texas will and should run some zone with Jak because of her length to frustrate the Gonzaga guards.  Minimize live ball turnovers that lead to transition threes.  Do not press - go back and set your defense after a made basket so they can't find an open shooter early in the shot clock

I'm curious for your perspective on bigs depth - how much of a gap do you see among Jones/Gaston/Faye/Muhammad?

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14 minutes ago, someguy said:

I'm curious for your perspective on bigs depth - how much of a gap do you see among Jones/Gaston/Faye/Muhammad?

They all play such different roles.  Jones is obviously your very traditional 5 - she's going to struggle if she has to guard out to the 3 point line, but she's so reliable when she catches the ball high - 60% FG for a reason.  She's also the team's leading rebounder, so the more she can play, the better chances we have of winning. She's also our leading shot blocker by a lot (60, compared to 23 for Holle). 

Gaston is more mobile and athletic and plays a lot bigger than her 6'2 height.  My worry with her is she gets frustrated easily, but she is a high energy player off the bench and she does have more of an ability to guard away from the basket and her offensive rebounding is insanely good. She can also score away from the basket more than Jones. 

Faye is also a good rebounder and defender, but she's severely limited away from the basket.  There's a reason she only averages about 12 minutes a game. 

Faye and Gaston are much better FT shooters than Jones.  Faye, Moore and Gaston take more charges than Jones. 

Muhammad is a mystery - she's 6'4, so she can play inside, but she's better at the 4.  She's a good rebounder, but not the best finisher.   And her FT shooting is atrocious.  She's also been turnover prone this year.  She gets called for a lot of travels.

The more you can play your lineup of Booker, Gonzales, Holle, Moore, Jones, the better chance you have to win.  Especially Moore - she kind of does it all.  She's a great offensive rebounder, she finishes inside in traffic very well, she's high energy, she can hit those short corner jumpers against a zone, but her FT shooting leaves a lot to be desired. 

Edited by Js1
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16 minutes ago, Js1 said:

They all play such different roles.  Jones is obviously your very traditional 5 - she's going to struggle if she has to guard out to the 3 point line, but she's so reliable when she catches the ball high - 60% FG for a reason.  She's also the team's leading rebounder, so the more she can play, the better chances we have of winning.

Gaston is more mobile and athletic and plays a lot bigger than her 6'2 height.  My worry with her is she gets frustrated easily, but she is a high energy player off the bench and she does have more of an ability to guard away from the basket and her offensive rebounding is insanely good. She can also score away from the basket more than Jones. 

Faye is also a good rebounder and defender, but she's severely limited away from the basket.  There's a reason she only averages about 12 minutes a game. 

Faye and Gaston are much better FT shooters than Jones. 

Muhammad is a mystery - she's 6'4, so she can play inside, but she's better at the 4.  She's a good rebounder, but not the best finisher.   And her FT shooting is atrocious.  She's also been turnover prone this year.

appreciate the breakdown - would you say Faye is more in the traditional 5 role like Jones, comparable on defense but more limited on offense?

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8 minutes ago, someguy said:

appreciate the breakdown - would you say Faye is more in the traditional 5 role like Jones, comparable on defense but more limited on offense?

Yes. Jones and Faye are 5s, Muhammad and Gaston are 4s. Gaston can play as a 4 or 5

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Moore is the X factor. She’s been one for us since the Big 12 tournament. She keeps coming up big. If she gets another double double, I’m quite confident we won easily 

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49 minutes ago, torre said:

@Pancho    What is your opinion/prediction of the refereeing so far in the games you have seen ?

Concern is they want let us play and accept our physical style.   Buoyed by Vanderveer's previous critique.

 

Ehh, it’s been fine from what I’ve seen. The only questions I had were on the Iowa/WVU game. I thought our games in Austin were reffed fine. 

It will just depends on what crew we have tonight. We will definitely have someone who we’ve seen before because they do B12 games (1), someone we haven’t seen before—most likely (2) and usually the 3rd is someone who may not be in either conference or in both conferences (3). That helps.

The women’s side is the same as the men’s on how refs advance to the next round. That may not bode well because of our style. The old saying goes it’s better to call a foul and have it be CI (Call Incorrect) than to not call a foul and have it be NCI (No Call Incorrect). More often than not, contact being a foul will result in a CC (Call Correct), and that could be contact that was always let go or not called in a regular season game. 

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1 hour ago, Pancho said:

Ehh, it’s been fine from what I’ve seen. The only questions I had were on the Iowa/WVU game. I thought our games in Austin were reffed fine. 

It will just depends on what crew we have tonight. We will definitely have someone who we’ve seen before because they do B12 games (1), someone we haven’t seen before—most likely (2) and usually the 3rd is someone who may not be in either conference or in both conferences (3). That helps.

The women’s side is the same as the men’s on how refs advance to the next round. That may not bode well because of our style. The old saying goes it’s better to call a foul and have it be CI (Call Incorrect) than to not call a foul and have it be NCI (No Call Incorrect). More often than not, contact being a foul will result in a CC (Call Correct), and that could be contact that was always let go or not called in a regular season game. 

These refereeing insights are always interesting as hell. Thanks.

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But at the same time, wow at “it’s better to call a foul that isn’t a foul than not call a foul that was a foul”

Which is why officiating sucks, in my opinion. Anticipation fouls that aren’t fouls. 

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Context. 

I’m not talking about anticipation fouls, I’m talking about contact that was incidental vs an actual foul or contact that may have happened but it was so light it didn’t impact the play (known as Game Interrupters). 

When someone says anticipating a foul, that sounds to me like blowing the whistle before the play finishes or contact occurs. That rarely happens, and it shouldn’t with the S16/EE refs. If you’ve made it this far, you are very highly graded and were highly graded in the 1st and 2nd rounds

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3 minutes ago, Pancho said:

Context. 

I’m not talking about anticipation fouls, I’m talking about contact that was incidental vs an actual foul or contact that may have happened but it was so light it didn’t impact the play (known as Game Interrupters). 

When someone says anticipating a foul, that sounds to me like blowing the whistle before the play finishes or contact occurs. That rarely happens, and it shouldn’t with the S16/EE refs. If you’ve made it this far, you are very highly graded and were highly graded in the 1st and 2nd rounds

Thanks for the context. So do you think that play by Brink on Crooks when she ended up on the floor was no call incorrect?

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36 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Thanks for the context. So do you think that play by Brink on Crooks when she ended up on the floor was no call incorrect?

Is that the big girl from Iowa State? 

Yes, that video I saw was a foul—shooting foul to be exact. I wanted to see the whole play because my first thought was the baseline ref was straight lined. 

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