Caitlin Clark’s Fever coach sounds off on referees after six technicals, three ejections

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White knew there was something brewing in Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Tuesday night.

Indiana was playing Connecticut, a notoriously physical team and known — as much as a 2-9 team can be — for its defense. The Fever and Sun have already played once this season, and that matchup included Fever guard Sophie Cunningham getting her front tooth chipped and injuring her ankle on a hard screen.

The chippiness didn’t stop in the teams’ second meeting, an 88-71 Fever win. Indiana star Caitlin Clark and Sun guard Jacy Sheldon started jawing in the first quarter. Officials quickly separated the two, but didn’t call any fouls.

Then, it escalated in the third quarter.

“The contact by Mabrey did not rise to the level of an ejection,” crew chief Ashley Gloss said in a pool report conducted by IndyStar. “Additionally, it did not meet the criteria for a flagrant foul 2 penalty.”

Sheldon, guarding Clark, poked her in the eye while Clark was trying to pass the ball. Clark immediately recoiled, grabbing her face and turning back to Sheldon. The two shoved each other as their teammates ran into the scrum, Sun center Tina Charles getting in the middle of them.

Sun guard Marina Mabrey then ran into the scrum, puffing her chest out and knocking Clark to the ground. Clark fell and players were quickly separated by the referees and the two coaching staffs.

But it was too little, too late, White thought, as the officials let the game get out of control.

“I think it was pretty obvious that stuff was brewing, right?” White said postgame. “When the officials don’t get control of the ballgame, when they allow that stuff to happen, and it’s been happening all season long … you’ve got competitive women who are the best in the world at what they do, and when you allow them to play physical, and you allow these things to happen, they’re going to compete, and they’re going to have their teammates backs. It’s exactly what you expect out of fierce competition.

“I started talking to the officials in the first quarter, and we knew this was going to happen. You could tell it was going to happen. So they got to get control of it. They got to be better.”

After a long review, officials upgraded Sheldon’s foul to a flagrant 1 and assessed technical fouls to Clark, Mabrey and Charles. The officials’ decision to not eject Mabrey for shoving Clark to the ground was surprising, both to the broadcast and for many media members and fans.

But it wasn’t surprising to Connecticut coach Rachid Meziane.

“No, I wasn’t surprised, because I don’t think her reaction was very big,” Meziane said. “She just tried to be between two players, but no, I don’t think she deserved to be ejected. This is not my job. I am a coach. The ref has to do their job, to clean up the game and make sure the best team won the game and not just who is more physical. I don’t think my players deserved this ejection.”

The pool report also stated Clark and Charles were assessed technical fouls because they acted in an “unsportsmanlike manner.” Sheldon’s foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 because “in the judgment of the officials, the foul by Sheldon was unnecessary, the contact to Clark’s face. Furthermore, there was windup and impact, and the contact to the face carries a potential for injury.”

Clark was not injured in the play, and she stayed in through the fourth quarter.

The crowd was active for the rest of the game, heavily booing Mabrey and Sheldon whenever they touched the ball and cheering even louder when the Sun would turn the ball over or miss a shot. That, too, was something Clark leaned into.

After hitting a 3-pointer to put Indiana up 20 with just under four minutes left, Clark turned to the Connecticut bench. She stared down the bench, which included Mabrey at the time, while she jogged back to play defense.

Then, after the Fever called a timeout to sub Clark and the other Fever starters out, Clark turned to the crowd, pumping her arms. The crowd obliged, cheering loudly as she checked out of the game.

“I was just excited. I made a shot, my first 3 in the second half,” Clark said. “… At the end of the day, I’m here to play basketball, and that’s my job. That’s what I’m gonna do. I was excited. Honestly, the review took too long for me. I wanted to get playing basketball again, and that’s exactly what I did the rest of the third quarter. I made all three free throws, and then I, you know, it was a tough 3. I was excited about a 3. And honestly, I got to give our crowd a lot of credit, too. I thought they were tremendous.”

Indiana was up by double-digits in the final minute of the game, with mostly backups playing out the final few minutes. But the dustups still weren’t over. With 46 seconds left and Indiana up by 17, Sophie Cunningham grabbed Sheldon’s head while she was going up for a layup.

Sheldon fell to the ground but immediately got back up, and she and Sun guard Lindsay Allen both rushed Cunningham. The fight spilled over into the fans at the baseline, and Cunningham pulled Sheldon’s hair while Sheldon and Allen grabbed her by the arms.

“I thought it was a flagrant,” White said simply when asked about Cunningham’s foul. She said the same thing when asked if she thought Cunningham was protecting Clark.

Cunningham received a flagrant 2 because the contact was “unnecessary and excessive,” according to the pool report, and she was ejected from the game. Officials also felt like that scuffle turned into a fight, so Sheldon and Allen were both assessed technicals for fighting and also ejected.

It was a game that got out of control at times and one the officials were not prepared to handle.

Subpar officiating is something White said she has seen numerous times this season, both with the Fever and across the league. And as the league grows and improves, White said, the officials will have to, too.

“Players are faster, they’re better, they’re bigger, they’re stronger,” White said. “They’re as good as they’ve ever been there, as athletic as they’ve ever been. The game is fast. Now, things are happening quickly. Everybody’s getting better, except the officials. So we got to find a way to remedy it. I mean, you’ve heard every coach talk about it, so I don’t know what the answer is.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fever coach sounds off on WNBA refs after Caitlin Clark knocked around