Sunday’s national championship game between LSU and Iowa was among the most hyped college basketball games in years. And while both teams met the moment with high-level playmaking, it was the officials that drew the ire of nearly everybody who tuned in.
Fouls played a critical role in the game—which the Tigers won, 102-85, for the program’s first-ever national title—for its entirety, with 12 fouls called in the first quarter and 21 in the first half. Iowa star Caitlin Clark picked up three in the first half and had to sit for the last few minutes of the second quarter. She was able to play foul-free for most of the third quarter, until the game’s most pivotal call came in at the worst time for the Hawkeyes.
As LSU was shooting free throws, Clark was issued a technical foul—which counted as her fourth personal foul—after she tossed the ball behind her toward the baseline in apparent frustration. That was just the most high-profile of the many times officials inserted themselves into the game, leading to no shortage of frustrated reactions from fans watching.
