DESTIN, Fla. - SEC women's basketball has upgraded its television package. Now, it wants to upgrade its officiating.
Increasing exposure and improving officiating were the major topics of conversation among the women's basketball coaches at the SEC spring meetings Wednesday.
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said ESPN would televise 32 regular-season SEC games in 2009-10 and Comcast would televise eight more.
"It's the best package we've ever had," Summitt said. "ESPN said they would make a commitment and they have."
Georgia coach Andy Landers said the package "clearly makes us the leader in women's basketball exposure."
The coaches apparently aren't as excited about the state of officiating.
"I have been concerned about officiating for the last three or four years, but more in the last couple," Summitt said. "I feel like we've got some great people right now as far as women's basketball (officiating) is concerned. But we need a lot of young officials coming in. We need to give them a chance."
"You've got to be in great shape. This game right now is so fast and physical, you've got to keep up with the game."
Summitt said it's up to the conference officials coordinator to hold officials accountable.
"We're accountable as coaches," she said. "If we don't win, we'll get fired. So if we can't improve our level of officiating, someone may have to go.
"I know from being at AAU tournaments, there are a lot of good young officials."
Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com.
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Comments » 28
volfan2002 writes:
WCBB is the worst officiated league anywhere. I still cringe at the Texas vs. Tennessee and also the Tennessee at Florida games last year. Those two games is when bad officiating got even worse. Hopefully the officiating will improve it can't get any worse.
eb502us#225637 writes:
Truth is, and I will say it once again, truth is that some of these female officials should never ever see the court to officiate a game, much less a YMCA league.
I'm sure there are a few good ones, but a few doesn't make for good officiating night in and night out. It's really a disgrace and almost laughable to watch some of these officials (mostly the non-calls) and it puts the women's game in a poor light.
SEC men's officiating isn't great either, but it's still 100% better than the women's game. Does WCBB really need female officials even to the detriment of their game?
PureOrange writes:
Pat is right. The officiating has been worse than awful.
LdyVolFaninKS writes:
There is no doubt that the officiating needs a serious tune-up. The big fella named Brian needs to be shown the door...it's not just bad officiating by women, but a mixture of both. I never did understand why they would call a stupid hand check on the perimeter but Cain could get raped underneath and the whistle wouldn't blow. The officials cost us the Florida game at Florida...no if's, and's or but's about it! Pat's right, we need some young officials in there that have evolved with women's basketball.
chaos001 writes:
i can attest from the UT/Vandy game in Nashville this past year. It was an absolute slugfest. I think if Kelly Cain would've been elbowed one more time, she was going to knock the he** out of Hannah Tuomi.
CTOWNICON writes:
I agree, those are the two games that stands out to me as well. I really can't pick which one was worse.
tnmantravel#531151 writes:
"You've got to be in great shape. This game right now is so fast and physical, you've got to keep up with the game."
This game right now is so fast
This game right now is so fast
This game right now is so fast????
sry, but that one made me laugh out loud
DroopyDrawers writes:
Dee Kanter needs to be 1st to go.
oldvolsfan writes:
agree
BigRMan writes:
THE GREATEST WOMEN'S REFEREE OF ALL TIME: NO QUESTION NO DOUBT- THE LEGENDARY SALLY BELL: SHE ALWAYS GAVE CYNTHIA COOPER ALL THE RESPECT THAT NBA OFFICIALS GAVE MICHAEL JORDAN: I ALWAYS WAS AT EASE WHEN SALLY OFFICIATED A HOUSTON COMET PLAY OFF GAME IN THE WNBA--AMEN!
rocky_topper writes:
AMEN! The officiating for the women's games has definitely gotten worse year after year. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed. And Kanter should be the first to be FIRED!
RTB writes:
This is going into one of my favorite sports harps -- officiating in WCBB is not as good as it used to be. The TV replay has helped the officiating a bit, but it is strange when they use it to take five minutes near the end of a game to figure out exactly how many seconds to put back on the clock, while for the entire game the same officials changed the outcome of the game by allowing fouls in the paint, or alternatively, by calling fouls when they should have made a non-call and allowed play to go on.
The officiating in the WCBB game has not kept up with the aggressive-competitive changes of the game over the past ten years or more. The really obvious problem has been that the officiating has not been *consistent* from conference to conference, or from game to game, and sometimes not even by the same official within one game. And it seems that a marginal official can continue for years getting things messed up, and changing the outcome of games without being replaced. Very few people go to the games to watch the officials, but they still need to be good. Sorry to rant on about it ....
tedb#664810 writes:
I have heard a number of sources praise Sally Bell. She may have done well in some areas, but she has a definite bad attitude when it comes to Coach Pat and UT. There needs to be more accountability on the part of officials. While officiating is very difficult and not many people will do it-there is no excuse for the number of calls that go against the Lady Vols on away courts.
98reax writes:
To allow the women to play the game, use their skills to avoid the block, the hands, the shoving, would be the ideal way to officiate. These athletes are capable of taking the rough stuff and still play basketball. The game suffers, becomes a boring, exasperating contest of coach-against-official when the game plan has to be changed to suit the whims of the officiating crew. (i.e.: at Texas; at Auburn)
No one wants to pay good money to watch the stripes take over the game with their frivolous whistles. Unfortunately, some of the 'pretties' think they are so cute and so buff that we are watching them perform.
I used to despise a game with SB who actually believed the game was about her. If she was not getting the attention from coaches on both ends of the court she would be blowing the whistle to pick up some imaginary piece of trash, or to check the clock for some fantom glitch. And then along comes DK and the show was on. "Stripes Steal The Show Again As 5 Lady Vols Foul Out"
I'm inclined to believe there's some bicep-envy going on there. I'm in agreement with Pat about some of the aging whistles not being able to get up and down the court. A whistle from the opposite end of the court should not be influential on what's happening under the basket. And for pete's sake, jump the tie-ball! If the player cannot keep control of the ball, don't give it back to her. That's not the way the game was designed.
I would enjoy a good hard-fought game of players against players. Wouldn't that be grand? The handchecks are ridiculous. The block/charge offense is out of control. The players have become such good actresses. I say let them hit the floor a few times with no-calls. They will wise up when they realize the game is on. Also the officials are so touchy about taunting. Let the players have their game back. Perhaps they will toughen up and take some pride in the way they shoot and handle the basketball, run the plays they have practiced and concentrate on offense and defense instead of "how can I get one over on this stripe?"
What a novel idea, Mr. Naismith! I like this game.
LdyVolFaninKS writes:
I couldn't have said it better myself...but you missed one. What is the point of a full-court press without the 10 second back court call? With the 10 second call, the press is so much more effective in making the players rush and creating turnovers!!
98reax writes:
That's a great point, FaninKS, but if they execute the full-court press the way the '98 team was able to do, the way the press should be run, the shot clock would be a moot point. Nevertheless, I would like to see the 10-second rule enforced.
Regarding my al-time favorite team, Tamika Catchings, Semeka Randall, Chamique Holdsclaw, Kellie Jolly and Teresa Geter could make the opponents cough up the rock better than any team I have ever seen. They ran the press to perfection 95% of the time.
Problem is now, in part, the officials call the slightest body contact, the silly ticky-tack touch fouls, it takes length and downright defensive skill like that of the 3 Meeks to get in the ball handlers' shorts and stay there until they smother the life out of her until she spits and studders.
I will never forget how they could humiliate a team like Vandy and not even let them inbound the basketball. It was almost as if no one wearing a color other than orange/white wanted the ball in their zipcode. They just knew from the git-go that Boo Randal was gonna pick 'em off, or Tree Geter was gonna cram the ball down their throat. Catch could jump up and grab the pass right out of the sky as she did so heroically in the waning seconds of the '98 Regional final comeback against NCarolina. The ball would never touch the floor before she or Mique would wow the crowd with a picture-perfect finger roll.
The stripes had little to whistle about in the days of the back2back2back champions. Mainly because the kids had guts and grit. They had awesome leadership with the likes of Spinderella, Lori Milligan, KJ and Ace running the show. The officials just enjoyed being paid to watch the performance. What's not to love about that?
Dang, I loved those teams. They could rack up 20 points on the scoreboard before Dee Kantner could flex her biceps once. June Corteau would be headed for the O2 tank, and 98reax was dancing in the isle, section 19, row 19. Will we ever see that caliber team again? I surely hope so while I am still able to dance.
volboy81 writes:
..AND SHE CAN TAKE THAT BRIAN ENTERLINE GUY WITH HER!! WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO SALLY BELL & JUNE CORTOW (SP?)? THEY WERE BAD, BUT COMPARED TO SOME OF THE OTHERS, THEY SEEM PRETTY GOOD!
SOME ARE SO BAD THEY ARE STARTING TO TAKE THE FUN OUT OF WATCHING THE GAME. ITS ABOUT TIME SOMEONE SPOKE UP ABOUT THEIR INEPTNESS!!!
MillisaAnn writes:
I do too, they got to do something about all this.
dcee58 writes:
I found this article at womensbasketballonline.com...for all the fans of Kantner read this:
"It's been a great game to me throughout my life," Kantner adds. "Players are getting better, we need to continually work at our craft to stay with those players, to referee the game at the level those talented players deserve."
And she plans on doing that when?? Time to see if she can find some other sport to be great in.
mississippi writes:
We all know of a couple HOMEGROWN uconn referees who want call a file on moore if you paid them. i personally think gino intimidates those refs and gives them houses as well so that he can have an advantage.
uconnfan1 writes:
90% of all refs make bad calls against UCONN.
LdyVolFaninKS writes:
When you are a powerhouse team like Tennessee and Uconn (and recently OU), the calls tend to go against you more. It almost seems like the refs are trying to even up the playing field for the less talented teams. Even though Tennessee wasn't a powerhouse team this year, the calls still went against them because they are Tennessee and have the best coach in the country.
CTOWNICON writes:
And Tennessee fans care about that because.....
uconnfan1 writes:
exactly!i think m nephew maybe a UT fan.he cries when they lose and gets excited when their winning.
rockytopron writes:
mike from ucan't you have no say when it comes to officiating since your team is paid to play and you have been the beneficiary of quite a few too many calls. your coach sucks! he's a cheater and an arrogant fool. go somewhere else and post your drivel.
vol4gzus writes:
Suggest removal....I think ewe were way off base when comparing hand check to an act of violence/cowardice committed on a female.
On topic, refs will need to get better as in any profession.
uconnfan1 writes:
that maybe true with the men but not with the women.the reffs always try to make calls for the underdog.they may think is makes teams even.there are so man bad calls.
mississippi writes:
To All uconn fans please STAY on the by
THANK YOU!
GO LADY VOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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