Fans’ anger over calls shows they care a lot
Caitlin Clark is a whiner! West Virginia got robbed! The refs were blind!
Those criticisms, or versions of them, ricocheted around social media Monday night. Casual fans, NBA players, even some coaches were heated about the officiating in Iowa’s win over the Mountaineers in the second round of the NCAA basketball tournament and weren’t shy about expressing it.
“I feel like West Virginia women’s team getting did bad by these refs,” Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard said on X, speaking for, well, pretty much everyone who isn’t an Iowa fan.
“Asking for a friend. Watching the WVU-Iowa game. Are the rules the same for both teams?” grumped Sacramento State coach Aaron Kallhoff, echoing the sentiments of the masses.
For anyone who’s been a fan of women’s basketball – heck, a fan of women’s sports – and long wondered what it would take for the game to be taken as seriously as the men’s, this was a glorious development.
Not the officiating. That’s still trash and the NCAA really needs to do something.
But that people had watched the game and been so invested in the outcome they were ready to take up pitchforks and torches on West Virginia’s behalf. That rather than putdowns and patronizing comments about female athletes, there were instead intense debates about the game they played. That for a few hours at least, a women’s game dominated the national conversation.
This is what progress sounds like if you listened beyond the din. Equality takes all shapes and forms, and in this case it’s griping about the refs.
None of these complaints came from West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg or his players, mind you. They were too proud of their defensive effort – holding Iowa to 64 points, almost 30 below its average, and not allowing anyone but Clark to make a 3-pointer – and the statement they made against college basketball’s all-time leading scorer.
“It’s a golden opportunity. An opportunity to beat the best player in the world or go toe-to-toe with her and compete for all 40 minutes,” said J.J. Quinerly, West Virginia’s leading scorer. “That’s what we did that whole game, competed the whole time.
“And nobody can take that away
See ARMOUR, Page 3B