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Publish date: Apr 5, 2011

The Pinnacle Awaits

By Kristen Leigh Porter
NCAA.org

When the NCAA Women’s Final Four tipped off Sunday night, both semifinal games were officiated on-court by all-women crews. Lisa Mattingly, Lisa Jones and Felicia Grinter worked the Texas A&M/Stanford matchup and Denise Brooks, Cameron Inouye and Sue Blauch handled Connecticut vs. Notre Dame. Mark Zentz was the standby official.

Whistle while you work

Women’s Final Four officiating crew works its way to the Pinnacle.

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Meet the referees

The following officials worked the April 3 NCAA Women’s Final Four semifinal pitting Stanford vs. Texas A&M:

  • Lisa Mattingly
  • Lisa Jones
  • Felicia Grinter

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Always learning

The quality and consistency of officiating is a top priority of the NCAA, which seeks to provide its student-athletes with a positive competitive experience. Just like the teams, there’s a preseason, a postseason and an offseason for registered NCAA officials. They never stop learning. Training and educational materials are readily available. Referees attend in-person and virtual clinics and camps and study rules interpretations and clarifications. A password-protected website even offers online resources such as PowerPoint presentations, quizzes, videos and a searchable rules database.

It was the 12th Women’s Final Four assignment for Mattingly, who also served as a standby in 1998. Nine game officials and one standby work the Women’s Final Four.

While ‘The Pinnacle Awaits’ is a trademarked slogan referring to the basketball teams participating in the tournament, reaching the pinnacle of women’s college basketball officiating is a similarly tough task.

“It’s very competitive,” said Mary Struckhoff, the NCAA’s national coordinator of women's basketball officiating. “It’s a great honor to be thought of as 10 of the best officials in the country. It’s a lot of responsibility.”

Approximately 1,000 Division I women’s basketball officials call games during the regular season. Of the 300 that meet a set of requirements, 177 were nominated by conferences to work postseason play. Ninety-six were chosen to be first-round game officials and each official’s performance is then tracked by on-site evaluators and members of a subcommittee of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee.

An Officiating Selection Index (OSI) that is similar to the Rating Percentage Index (RPI) used for team selection provides quantifiable information for the selection of officials. And, just as teams advance through wins and losses, the referees advance based on their performances.

Forty-eight officials worked the second round. Thirty-six worked regionals, and this year 26 were women.

The regional round concluded late Tuesday night. The subcommittee held a conference call on Wednesday afternoon to go over the list of 36 referees working the regional semifinals and finals. Recommendations, ratings and a variety of other factors are all part of the evaluation process to make sure the best officials are on the floor for the Women’s Final Four

Struckhoff tells selected officials that each will forever be known as a Final Four official, and with that comes additional responsibility and expectations. 


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