'Egregious' mistakes in a number of WNBA games led to tighter officiating

Atlanta DreamChicago SkyConnecticut SunDallas WingsGolden State ValkyriesIndiana FeverLas Vegas AcesLos Angeles SparksMinnesota LynxNew York LibertyPhoenix MercuryPortland FireSeattle StormToronto TempoWashington MysticsScores & ScheduleStandingsPodcastsNewsletterNo Offseason Newsletter‘Egregious’ mistakes in a number of WNBA games led to tighter officiatingAn incident between Indiana's Sophie Cunningham, left, and Connecticut's Jacy Sheldon last June was one moment that helped lead to a task force on officiating. Dylan Buell / Getty Images Share articleThe WNBA is not new to officiating issues. This offseason, the league took an added step toward addressing the problems by establishing a task force whose responsibility will be to provide feedback on specific areas of improvement. The group met multiple times this offseason and has plans to continue meeting during the 2026 campaign. But after years of heavy scrutiny, what was the catalyst for the WNBA’s newfound emphasis on making officiating changes? Sue Blauch, the WNBA’s head of referee performance and development, told The Athletic the overall officiating performance was “good” last season. However, there were a number of games where “egregious” mistakes were made. Blauch specifically referenced the Indiana Fever’s 88-71 win over the Connecticut Sun on June 17. “We had a number of errors in that game,” Blauch said. “We just didn’t handle the physicality from the first period. If you go back and look at that game, it escalated. The emotions escalated and we didn’t do our job.” There were three late-game ejections after Fever guard Sophie Cunningham wrapped up Sun guard Jacy Sheldon under the basket with less than a minute to play. They were both ejected, along with Sun guard Lindsay Allen. But Blauch felt there were moments throughout the game that were called incorrectly, which led to the skirmish. Fever guard Caitlin Clark was poked in the eye by Sheldon in the third quarter. Clark shoved Sheldon before walking away from her, and was then body checked to the ground by Sun guard Marina Mabrey. Mabrey was assessed a technical foul, and Sheldon was given a Flagrant 1. Mabrey’s foul was later upgraded to a Flagrant 2, but Blauch said it should have resulted in an ejection. Monty McCutchen, the head of referee training and development across the NBA, WNBA and G League, added that there were “pretty egregious hair pulls” that also went unchecked. Blanca Burns, Jenna Reneau and Ashley Gloss were the referees in that game. All three are still officiating in the league, Blauch said. “The specifics are a little less important than the fact that we had some moments that got too big on top of us and we didn’t handle with the appropriate amount of adjudication to it,” McCutchen said. “Any time you miss the mark on that, then the emotions escalate in a game because the proper penalty wasn’t [called]. ‘If you’re not going to take care of this, then I will’ kind of mentality starts to seep into a game.” The newly formed task force is composed of eight WNBA coaches and general managers and is separate from the league’s competition committee, which is made up of every coach and GM. According to a team source, the task force includes Phoenix Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts, Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White, Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello, Connecticut Sun GM Morgan Tuck, Dallas Wings GM Curt Miller, New York Liberty GM Jonathan Kolb, Minnesota Lynx coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve and Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon. Blauch said the group felt there wasn’t a need for new rules, just better enforcement of the existing ones — emphasizing freedom of movement — which has resulted in an uptick in foul calls year-over-year. The WNBA was averaging 38.7 fouls per game through the first 10 days of the 2025 season. That number has risen to 44 fouls per game this season. Prior to this year, there were two yearly meetings, one in November and another in the spring, at which the competition committee would address officiating issues and other operational matters with league officials. McCutchen and Blauch say they are constantly evaluating officials during the season using a platform called “referee engagement performance system.” It allows them to pull up specific plays and provide feedback, ask questions and do an overall evaluation of officials’ performance. McCutchen and Blauch can clip any play within 30 seconds after the final buzzer and send it to officials using this system. An additional accountability measure is taken in scheduling. McCutchen said officials are not given their entire schedule for the season. The officials who perform well in the first quarter of the season can be elevated from umpire or referee to crew chief. The opposite is also true in that officials underperforming could be demoted to referee or umpire from the crew chief role. The Last Two Minute Report, which is utilized in the NBA, is also being considered. McCutchen said it hasn’t been implemented only because of a resource issue and that referee operations is “not afraid of a L2M report.” In regards to potentially having a WNBA replay center, Bethany Donaphin, the WNBA’s head of league operations, said in a statement shared with The Athletic that the league is constantly evaluating its referee operations program, including how technology could advance the game. “Those discussions are ongoing and we will continue to evaluate future investment opportunities in those areas,” Donaphin’s statement said. “It’s certainly something we’re exploring, but there’s nothing to announce at this time.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms