World of Referees, The

Women's Basketball, Feb 2004 by Wheelock, Helen

An example would be the question of advantage-disadvantage.

"A girl's going to the hoop and she gets her arm grabbed," says Cornell, "but at the same time gets the ball off to a person who's underneath the basket. Are you going to call that a foul, or are you going to let it go so they have a shot at the 2 points?" she asks. "If you're asking if that's a foul, yes, it is. But you're taking away 2 potential points."

Of course, as rules are imposed to "improve" the game, coaches and players look for ways to circumvent them. For instance, says Broderick, "You can't touch a dribbler with the hand. Well, now the players use more of their body. So now we have to put some philosophical things in place, like: Is it displacement? Do they take them out of rhythm and upset their speed and quickness? Does it have an effect on the play? Did that bump, that tip on the arm, did that make her miss the shot, or did that little bump all of a sudden get turned [by the shooter] into them falling all over the place?

"In the professional game, and sometimes in the collegiate game, they've gotten really good at acting and being demonstrative," she adds. " 'Fool the ref,' officials call it, an attempt to draw the foul or to try and put things to your advantage by creating something that really didn't happen. Because they're so athletic and so good at it, you've got to try and figure out, Is that a fake or did she really get pushed?"

An ironic complication, says Broderick, is that "we want physical play. We don't want people saying, 'The women can't block shots. The women don't want to apply any pressure, and they don't want to play with any physicality. We just don't want it to get rough - and it's a fine line between being physical and getting rough."

Fans and coaches often get on refs for a "late" or "slow" whistle. "That's certainly not a sign of weakness, but many people perceive it as such," says Campbell, "It's one of the key teaching points in officiating. It's much better to have a slow, delayed whistle than a quick whistle and not be able to take it back. It's one of the hardest things to teach, because you want to immediately react. But so many times, as our players have gotten more athletic, they can get out of a situation that would have been, 10 years ago, a definite block or charge. With their body control, they can make it into an athletic play without a foul."

The mechanics of reffing - how one signals an offensive or defensive foul, what a travel or 30-second clock violation looks like - are recognizable to most, but few realize that mechanics also guide where officials move.

"We have a place to be that nobody really cares about, but we have to know it," says Kanter. The "lead" official is on the baseline, the "trail" official is at about the 28-foot mark and the "slot" official is at about the free-throw line extended. "You should have the lead and trail together on one side of the floor and the slot on the other side."

The system involves a constant rotation, so no official is always covering the same area. "The ball dictates the position of the officials, and the lead dictates the rotation. On a fast break, the trail is going to bust out to become the new lead," she explains. "If the ball stays on that strong side, we don't need to rotate. But if it goes to the weak side, now we're initiating a rotation."