More whistles, more points: How the WNBA’s new officiating focus is reshaping games
Cheryl Reeve has seen a lot of improvements in officiating this season and it’s helped the WNBA have record offensive numbers so far through the first half of the season
NEW YORK -- Cheryl Reeve has seen a lot of improvements in officiating this season and it's helped the WNBA have record offensive numbers so far through the first half of the season.
There's still areas that need to be worked on, but it will take more than 20 games for everything to be cleaned up.
“We’ve seen great improvements on the very things that were broken,” the Minnesota Lynx coach said. “There was a level of impeding players and trying to cut off a screen. We don’t want the unnecessary physicality.”
The league put together a task force, which Reeve is on, in the offseason to help clean up some of the physicality in the game. The main point of emphasis was to help players' freedom of movement. Despite some hiccups early on, it has led to more offense as teams are averaging around 86 points a game — the highest ever. They are shooting nearly 45% from the field — also the best in league history.
So far this season there have been roughly 4 1/2 more fouls called per game with 75% of them being non-shooting fouls.
“I think it’s fair for our coaches and players to be able to say we’re happy and we think positive things are taking place, but still I disagree with the calls that are affecting our team tonight,” Monty McCutchen, who is the head of WNBA officials, told The Associated Press.
“I want coaches to remain advocates for their teams," McCutchen added. "We have gotten positive feedback that we’re on the right track. we’ll continue to work through specifics when we fail that task and we’ll continue to check in with the officiating task force to make sure that we’re aligned with the expectations.”
By no means are things perfect. Coaches and players have complained of inconsistencies between officiating crews. What might be called a foul in one half might not be deemed a foul at another point in the game. Obvious fouls are getting missed too.
“It’s never going to be perfect, but we’re trending in the right direction,” Reeve said. “We’ve put resources into this.”
Reeve recalled a play that she asked to be reviewed during her team's game against Dallas. The officials looked at the play and upgraded it to a flagrant.
The league is constantly reviewing plays. Alyssa Thomas’ punch to the throat of Caitlin Clark that was upgraded to a Flagrant-2 was one of four that the league reviewed that night and was the only one upgraded.
Common fouls aren’t the only thing on the rise. Both technical fouls and flagrant fouls are up too. There have been 124 technicals assessed this season (four more were rescinded). Last year there were 171 total. There have been 44 flagrants called this season as compared to 51 all of last year.
“I think they are doing a better job at reviewing hostile acts,” Reeve said. “We didn't ask for that, but if that's what it takes to clean it up (it's worth it).”
Not everyone is a fan of all the reviews. Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said after a loss to Indiana last week that there were too many of them.
“It’s exhausting when they go to the review every time. I mean, these games are getting longer and longer. It’s encouraging more drama,” she said. “So, it’s like somebody gets hit, and it’s like take them to the hospital. And they jump up, and they’re fine. So I actually think it’s not just today. It’s across the league. There’s so many reviews.”
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