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Media Center 8/31/2022 2:00:00 PM

Rastatter named NCAA men’s basketball national coordinator of officials

He brings 27 years of college officiating to the position.

Chris Rastatter, who has 27 years of experience with college basketball officiating, has been named the NCAA's national coordinator of men's basketball officiating, to be effective Thursday. Rastatter replaces J.D. Collins, who will be retiring in October from the position he has held since 2015.

Rastatter has worked as a men's basketball official primarily in the western part of the country since 1995. During his career, he has worked 19 NCAA tournaments, which include Men's Final Four assignments in 2019, where he was an alternate, and 2021, when he worked the national semifinal between Baylor and Houston. Rastatter also worked the NCAA Division II men's basketball final in 2003.

From 1996 to 2019, Rastatter was the director of the Southern Arizona Officials Camp, where he was responsible for all creation, video content and instruction for the camp's mechanics and fundamentals presentations.

He also coordinated camp schedules and officiating assignments. Each summer, nearly 100 officials nationwide, of all skill levels and experience, attended the camp.

In 2018, Rastatter established the Tucson Youth Officiating Program to teach young men and women the life skills, tools and values to promote self-confidence and growth through basketball officiating.

These experiences are why Rastatter was interested in being in a national leadership role.

"I am passionate about officiating and have a love for teaching and the developing of referees," said Rastatter, who has also worked 13 conference championship games in his career. "I believe that I can make a difference, not only in the officiating program but how referees are perceived by those outside the officiating world."

Rastatter's short-term priorities will include sharing his officiating philosophies with the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee, conference coordinators, coaches and other stakeholders throughout the sport. He also wants to initiate a comprehensive training program to increase call accuracy during the regular season and the NCAA tournament by focusing on mechanics and positioning.

Rastatter will work closely with Collins over the next two months to ensure a smooth transition in the national coordinator role before the start of the college basketball season.

In the long term, Rastetter said identifying and developing the next generation of NCAA basketball officials will be a key initiative.

"Chris distinguished himself as the best overall candidate after a national search," NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt said. "He has had a highly successful career as an elite official over nearly three decades on the court. Chris has earned the respect of his referee peers and coaches as an effective communicator and rules expert. I'm confident that he will build on the excellent work of retiring national coordinator J.D. Collins. Chris will provide collaborative leadership of national men's basketball officiating in education, teaching and development, as well as evaluation and assigning for the national championship."

Gavitt worked with seven other members of a search committee to identify the national coordinator. The committee consisted of Penny Davis, NCAA women's basketball coordinator of officials; Dan Leibovitz, Southeastern Conference associate commissioner for men's basketball (Division I Men's Basketball Competition Committee); Charles McClelland, commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (Division I Men's Basketball Committee); Jeff O'Malley, director of athletics at Lamar University and NCAA men's basketball secretary-rules editor; Matt Painter, Purdue coach (Division I Men's Basketball Oversight Committee); Nate Pomeday, associate executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches; and Brad Taylor, NCAA assistant director of men's basketball.

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'It's a tough deal to live with that': Inside the high-pressure world of March Madness referees

Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato Follow on X

In 2011, Jeffrey Anderson stood on the court at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati and breathed a sigh of relief.

Toward the end of a Crosstown Shootout matchup between rivals Cincinnati and Xavier, the action had not erupted into chaos the way Anderson -- a young referee at the time -- had anticipated. He was proud.

Seconds later, everything changed. Punches were thrown following a late air ball, and Anderson sprinted into a scrum as players from both teams spilled onto the floor. The scuffle forced officials to end the game early.

Anderson had relaxed too soon.

"It's freaking 12 seconds to go in the game," Anderson, a longtime college basketball official, told ESPN. "Then, all hell broke loose."

But according to Anderson, those tense moments early in his career proved to those above him that he could handle the heat, which led to better assignments. He still remembers bouncing the basketball at the free throw line at Madison Square Garden in the semifinals of his first Big East tournament. He looked up at the crowd and knew he had made it.

"I was very fortunate," said Anderson, who officiated Texas A&M's 98-83 win over Nebraska in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Memphis on Friday. "I went up the ladder kind of quick."

Every March, college basketball officials know their jobs will earn a higher level of scrutiny from everyone: players, coaches, fans, reporters and their own bosses and league executives. Only the best officials in the pool are allowed to officiate these games. And if they're good in the first round, they can advance to the second and so on to the Final Four, when the NCAA picks the top crew.

Survive and advance? That's the reality for 109 officials in the NCAA tournament, who share many of the physical and emotional trials, challenges and triumphs as the players and coaches involved.

John Higgins is always looking for the next budding star. With a pen in hand, he takes notes as he watches officials in action. He looks at their efficiency and consistency. He analyzes their communication skills. He keeps an eye on their athleticism -- if someone is agile and quick, Higgins knows they can get to the right spot on the court in a hectic game. Some skills can't be taught.

Higgins is the coordinator of officials for the Western Basketball Officiating Consortium, managing what amounts to a combine or draft process for basketball officials. At offseason camps operated by collegiate officials and coordinators around the country -- including the NCAA's own college basketball referee academy -- Higgins and his colleagues scout young Division II and III referees who hope to get the call up to Division I.

"You've got to have command of the game, good judgment and knowledge of the rules," Higgins told ESPN. "You also have to look the part. We talk about LeBron James and Michael Jordan -- I can watch [refs] and see if they have the 'it factor.'

"You can see when guys are just out there blowing the whistle and don't have that command and confidence."

There is only one way to know whether an official can go from the simulated experience of a camp to the real thing, which might include a nose-to-nose encounter with an angered coach or a confrontation with a heated player. Just last month, Clemson's Joseph Girard III charged an official and had to be held back after a no-call at the end of his team's loss at Duke.

"You're not going to throw 'em into Duke vs. North Carolina in their first year," Chris Rastatter, the NCAA's coordinator of officials in men's basketball, told ESPN. "I'll see a particular matchup, and I'll see a young referee that I think has some NCAA tournament potential, and I'll go, 'Oh, here's a good matchup for that ref. We'll see how they handle it.' But you don't know. When the bright lights come on, you see who handled it. Almost everybody does."

Early in his career, Olandis Poole hoped to prove he could handle that pressure.

He attended multiple referee camps, which often also feature non-Division I and high school refs hoping to catch a break. The key to getting in was straightforward -- find a mentor who could vouch for you at those camps. The challenge from there was making the right calls.

"That process was an every summer occurrence," said Poole, who has officiated in the NBA and college for more than 20 years. "I was just trying to get seen, trying to get observed."

Jason Baker, an SEC official, said he attended over 125 camps, beginning when he was 17, to work his way to the top. He'd grab every assignment he could until, much like NCAA teams on Selection Sunday, he got tapped to officiate at the Division I level.

"I reffed high school after I graduated from college, then worked [junior college] games," Baker said. "I got hired in Division I basketball in 1999. And I kept working my way up."

"It's a long road," collegiate official Joe Lindsay said.

Anderson has earned the nickname "high knees" because of the way he sprints down the floor during games. An X parody account named after him has nearly 15,000 followers.

"I have a little back problem," Anderson told ESPN about his running style. "My chiropractor suggested that because of how my back was, I should [stand up straight] and bring my knees up as high as I possibly can to take pressure off my back."

Anderson's "high knees" popularity is an outlier, though, as reactions toward officials are often far from lighthearted.

Lindsay is the second of three generations of referees in his family. He idolized his father so much that he dressed like a referee for Halloween as a kid multiple times. With his son having entered the family business, Lindsay admits he's worried.

At a game in South Carolina last month, frustrated fans yelled Lindsay's name from the stands and expressed their dismay at some of his calls.

"They used to say you could tell a good referee when you didn't know his name," Lindsay told ESPN. "Hey, 'I don't know your name and I didn't know you refereed that game.' That was the biggest compliment ever."

That's rare today. There are many ways to search for details about an official, which is why Rastatter advises officials to stay off social media and never announce their locations or schedules. It's too dangerous in today's climate, he said.

"We don't share details," Rastatter said. "You just don't."

The legalization and expansion of sports betting has also elevated the demand for privacy among officials. Rastatter advises his officials to not have conversations off the court about games and risk inadvertently revealing information that could impact the betting line.

"We always talk about gambling and just having awareness, because you could be having a casual conversation with somebody and all they're trying to do is get some information out of you," he said. "We are on alert. I don't tell people where I'm going, who I'm reffing. I don't talk about players, the game, I don't talk about any of that."

Higgins said the uptick in sports betting has also led to more analysis of officials from watchdog companies, such as U.S. Integrity -- the same group that flagged "suspicious" betting activity before a Temple game this month. The school has launched an investigation.

"If you did bet, you'd be fired in a second," Higgins said. "There is U.S. Integrity that looks into the point spread to see if there are trends or [people] putting a lot of money on one game, and then they look at all of the referees. That's the background part of it they do. So there is a big, big push to watch referees."

Refs can also be subject to disciplinary action when they make mistakes, per the officials who spoke to ESPN. Earlier this month, an official in a West Coast tournament missed a critical call that could have decided the outcome of a game, Higgins said. That official lost a future assignment for that conference tournament as discipline. With the healthy pipeline of talent that has developed for officials, Rastatter said, every ref knows they can be replaced.

"If they're not cutting it," Rastatter said, "there are plenty of other people who can get the job done."

Hours after the NCAA tournament began, a controversial call became one of its top storylines.

With his team ahead 90-89 in the final seconds of a first-round game on Thursday, Kansas guard Nicolas Timberlake raced down the court for a layup as Samford's A.J. Staton-McCray swiped the ball from his hands. To many, it appeared to be a clean block.

A foul, however, was called. Timberlake went to the charity stripe and hit a pair of free throws to extend KU's lead, sealing a 93-89 victory for the Jayhawks.

After the game, Timberlake said he was "definitely" fouled, but Samford coach Bucky McMillan wasn't so sure.

"I have seen the play," McMillan said after the game. "I thought [Staton-McCray] made an incredible play on it, you know what I'm saying? I'm not faulting the call. Some people can see it [in] different ways."

While fans online continue to debate the validity of that call and others in the tournament's opening weekend, the officials in the field know they're accountable to a higher officiating power. And if they fell short of the standard, they can only hope to get another chance to prove themselves in the next round.

If they don't get that opportunity, just like the players and coaches they govern on the court, they'll have the entire offseason to think about what went wrong.

"I know I've missed calls down the stretch of a game," Rastatter said. "Let's face it: [Those calls] have some influence on the outcome. And those are hard to swallow. It's a tough deal to live with that.

"Now, you got to flush it and get on to the next one."

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NCAA Basketball Academy

Current NCAA college basketball officials will work the 2023 College Basketball Academies, officiating games in the Team Pathway (U.S. Open Basketball Championships) and Individual Pathway of the event.

The Academies will serve as a developmental opportunity for selected officials. Training will focus on mechanics, communication, leadership, play calling, and more. There will be 16 clinicians that will serve as evaluators throughout the week for both the Men’s Academy and Women’s Academy. This group will consist of current Division I Officials and the NCAA Regional Advisors.

NCAA men's and women's basketball officials, including men's basketball officials working at the 2019 College Basketball Academy

Officiating Selection Details: Men’s Academy (July 24 to July 27, 2023): There will be a total of 144 officials invited to officiate the Men's Academy: 72 Division I, 48 Division II, and 24 Division III officials. Officials will be selected by the National Coordinator of Officials at each level — Chris Rastatter (DI), John Blazek (DII) and Jim Haney (DIII) — with input from each conference coordinator.

Interested officials can complete the Officiating Form, which went live in RefQuest on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, and will be sent to all Division I, II and III officials. The deadline to submit the Officiating Form is Friday, June 2, 2023 , at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Invitations for selected officials will be sent on or before Monday, June 5 . Men’s Academy officials should arrive by 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 23. Registration will take place at 4:00 p.m., and the opening meeting will begin at 5:00 p.m. Departure can be scheduled for mid to late afternoon on Thursday, July 27.

Officiating Selection Details: Women’s Academy (July 28 to July 31, 2023): There will be a total of 144 officials invited to officiate the Women's Academy: 72 Division I, 48 Division II, and 24 Division III officials. Officials will be selected by the National Coordinator of Officials at each level — Penny Davis (DI), Connie Perkins (DII), and Mary Toberman (DIII) — with input from conference coordinators.

Interested officials must be nominated by their conference coordinators. Interested officials should reach out to their conference coordinators, who will then provide them with a link to complete the registration process. The deadline is Friday, June 2, 2023.

Invitations for selected officials will be sent on Monday, June 12. Selected Women's Academy officials should arrive by 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 27 and may depart after their last assignment.

Please note: High school basketball referees are not eligible to officiate games at the 2023 College Basketball Academies. This opportunity is exclusively for current Division I, Division II, or Division III basketball officials.

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NCAA Tournament Showcasing Lack of Consistency and Accountability in Officiating

Author: Pat Forde

When North Carolina’s Brady Manek fired an elbow into the face of Baylor’s Jeremy Sochan with 10:08 left in an NCAA Tournament second-round game Sunday, it sent the officiating crew working the game to the replay monitor with a big decision to make. Eject a key player from an elimination game, or assign a lesser penalty and play on?

Ultimately, the crew of Donnie Eppley, Kipp Kissinger and Brent Hampton made the right call: It was a flagrant 2 foul and Manek had to go. The strange part is everything that happened thereafter.

The game dissolved into a street fight, with Baylor implementing an extremely physical full-court press that reduced a 25-point deficit to a manageable number in shockingly rapid time. Rather than rein in the contact, the refs became bystanders. The Bears bumped and shoved and slapped, and the whistles did not blow—well, at least not against the aggressor that was playing desperately to get back into the game. The whistles blew many times against North Carolina.

Aside from a double foul assessed to both teams, the next seven calls were all fouls on the Tar Heels. That’s not to mention the no-calls that went against Carolina while being waylaid. The most egregious: guard Caleb Love being body-blocked at midcourt, with the result being a turnover and Baylor dunk. There also was a blatantly missed out-of-bounds call late in the game that was ruled Baylor ball and had to be overturned on review.

The reigning national champion Bears got the game into overtime, a mind-boggling comeback in 10 minutes of game time, but they had help. North Carolina regrouped and won in OT, which spared the officials even more criticism than what was being heaped upon them via social media as the hackfest unfolded.

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, right, talks with a referee during the first half of a college basketball game against Michigan State in the second round of the NCAA tournament Sunday, March 20, 2022, in Greenville, S.C.

AP Photo/Brynn Anderson

“No reasonable person could suggest that game was called correctly,” said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, a member of the NCAA men’s basketball competition committee and an unstinting on-air critic of the current state of college hoops officiating.

Now here’s the kicker: Two of the three officials in that fiasco reportedly will work in the Sweet Sixteen. According to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, Hampton is one of nine assigned to work the East Regional this week and Kissinger will work the South. They somehow graded highly enough to advance.

Bad officiating was rewarded. And not just in that game. After two rounds of nationwide outcry over the refereeing of the tournament, the NCAA says everything is fine and acknowledges no extraordinary issues.

“The officials have done a nice job thus far in the tournament,” national coordinator of officials J.D. Collins told Sports Illustrated this week. "Over the last three seasons we average 96% call accuracy when we blow our whistle and (about) 90% when we add plays where we should have blown the whistle. This year’s officials are at that standard again this year.”

Bilas’s response to that 96% grade: “J.D. Collins is a nice guy, but who are we trying to kid here? Whoever created that grade, I want to take their class. That’s an easy A.”

As noted above, there were issues beyond North Carolina-Baylor that haven’t sidelined several of the involved officials. While Brian O’Connell rightfully did not advance to work the Sweet 16 after calling a mystifying technical foul on Illinois’s R.J. Melendez for hanging on the rim, others involved in controversy did advance.

In Notre Dame’s narrow loss to Texas Tech, Red Raiders forward Kevin McCuller had a breakaway dunk. For some reason he reached up and grabbed the rim with his off hand before flushing the ball—a clear basket interference call that went unmade. Replays showed veteran official John Higgins looking directly at the play and still not making the call. That game became extremely physical in the final minutes as well, which benefitted the Red Raiders.

“John Higgins, he’s got to be going in the Big 12 Hall of Fame this summer, right?” Said one prominent college coach who watched the Notre Dame-Texas Tech game, noting that Higgins has long called Big 12 games and the Red Raiders are members of that conference. “Why would he be allowed to call that game?”

Higgins has advanced to work the East Region, according to Goodman. Paul Szelc, who also had the Notre Dame-Texas Tech game, will work the South Region this week.

The final game of the second round saw TCU trying to shock No. 1 seed Arizona on the last possession of regulation. Guard Mike Miles dribbled himself into trouble near midcourt in the final seconds and ultimately was trapped, bumped and turned the ball over. There was no call of an obvious foul—but there also was no over-and-back call on MIles, who stepped on the midcourt line just before being body-blocked.

The officials, at least one of whom appeared to be badly out of position, called nothing. Crew members Keith Kimble and Doug Shows will work the Midwest and West regions this week, according to Goodman.

“The call in the Arizona-TCU game, they missed one,” Bilas said. “It’s the calls in the course of the game that weren’t made that are the problem. But the veteran officials know that someone has to advance. They need someone to call the games.”

Indeed, the officiating talent pool is shallow enough that the big-name refs are virtually assured of advancing in the tournament regardless of how they actually perform. Ken Pomeroy’s website tracks all Division I officiating assignments and ranks the refs according to the level of regular-season games they are assigned, per his metrics. His reasoning is sound: The officials most highly regarded by the conferences get the biggest games.

This year, 17 of Pomeroy’s top 18 refs are still in the tourney. That includes Kimble (No. 1), Higgins (No. 5), Kissinger (No. 7), Shows (No. 8) and Szelc (No. 13), despite being involved in controversial games. Did they get there on past reputation, or current performance? “It’s sort of an old boys’ network,” one coach said.

Administrators from the tournament teams, members of the Division I men’s basketball committee and officiating monitors all provide input on the referees after every tourney game. They are given three options for rating an official: “strongly recommend” to advance; “recommend” to advance; and “do not recommend” to advance. Some wonder how much their feedback is considered.

“Why even ask for our input if they’re just going to advance who they want?” Asked one administrator who gave a “do not recommend” vote over the weekend on an official who advanced.

Collins said he’s only heard from one complaining coach in 52 tournament games thus far. But in the wider world, people are talking as much about the officiating as they are about Cinderella Saint Peter’s and Mike Krzyzewski’s quest to go out on top.

“This is the first time in a while that the officiating is a story,” said one prominent athletic director. “That’s disappointing.”

The disappointment is threefold:

Officiating is difficult, and has become a thankless task. It’s hard to cultivate the next generation of refs when the current generation is steeped in criticism.
The magnificence of this tournament is undercut by sore-loser conspiracy theorists who would rather declare their team cheated by the refs than fairly beaten. This mirrors the current political climate, when losers readily label elections stolen instead of lost.
Public doubt in the officials is problematic for the NCAA to confront and publicly acknowledge during the showcase of March Madness . That undoubtedly fuels some of the NCAA’s “Everything Is Fine” rhetoric.

“I understand why people in a position of authority are loath to undermine confidence in the officials,” Bilas said. “We don’t need to do that. But we also doin’t need to make excuses and rationalizations. We need to be accountable.”

The primary problem as Bilas sees it—and I agree—is that the attempt to restore freedom of movement a few years ago has not only stalled, it’s gone in reverse. The college game has returned to hammer-and-tong defense beating up pass-and-cut offense. Artistry is losing to brute force.

“The way these games are being officiated and called and how college basketball has kind of morphed into this … it’s pretty rugby-like in a lot of instances,” Gonzaga’s Mark Few said Wednesday.

This can be exacerbated in the tournament, when officials are even more reticent to foul out star players or make a call that decides a season-ending game for the losing team. The smarter approach for a ref trying to advance is probably a no-call over a controversial call. Letting the players decide it on the floor is a nice sentiment, but not calling fouls can decide a game, too.

The defining stat on this issue: the 16.65 fouls called per team per game is the lowest in Division I history, or at least dating to 1948, the first year for which the NCAA has national statistics. If that holds through the rest of the tourney, it will be the third straight year of an all-time low in fouls called.

Corresponding numbers: Scoring is down to 71.06 points per game, lowest it has been since 2015. Field goal percentage is 44.08%, down from last year and the second-lowest it has been in the last six years.

“They’re not calling the clear fouls,” Bilas said. “It’s pretty simple. There was really great progress, and we’ve seen it all go away this year.”

Rarely has that been more clear than in the North Carolina-Baylor demolition derby Sunday. But in a sport strapped for quality officials, even presiding over that fiasco isn’t enough to get the whole crew sent home for the rest of the tournament.

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South Carolina Basketball Star Ashlyn Watkins Arrested on Assault and Kidnapping Charges

Watkins was released on a $30,000 bond after her arrest

C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos via Getty

University of South Carolina women’s basketball star Ashlyn Watkins was arrested on assault and kidnapping charges on Saturday, Aug. 31.

Watkins was arrested in Columbia, South Carolina following a warrant, filed by the University of South Carolina Police Department and obtained by PEOPLE, stating that Watkins allegedly assaulted the victim by “forcefully grabbing her face, pulling her arms and pushing.”

The warrant includes claims that Watkins picked up the victim against her will and “grabbed the victim’s head and forced her to walk down the hall, thus controlling her movement while preventing her from leaving."

The victim was able to escape and pulled a fire alarm, per the warrant. Local police and fire officials then arrived on the scene and the victim was treated for non life-threatening injuries.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Following her arrest, Watkins was released on a $30,000 personal recognizance bond and ordered to have no direct or indirect contact with the victim.

Her next court appearance is set for Oct. 25. In the meantime, Watkins will be able to travel with the team for out-of-state games and practices.

PEOPLE has contacted South Carolina for comment. The school told local news station WLTX19 that they were aware of Watkins' arrest and gathering information, but has not yet issued a statement or said if Watkins will remain on the team.

Watkins and South Carolina won the NCAA National Championship in March, beating Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75 to cap off their undefeated season. Watkins played 14 minutes in the win, with 3 points, 1 assist and 5 rebounds.

A junior, Watkins is set to begin her third season with the Gamecocks after averaging 9.2 points and 7.4 rebounds per game last year. The team has their first game on Nov. 10 against North Carolina State.

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NCAA | April 1, 2024

Ncaa division i men’s basketball committee names game officials for 2024 men’s final four.

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee has approved the 11 game officials recommended by Chris Rastatter, the national coordinator of officiating, to work Saturday’s two national semifinal games and Monday’s national championship game. A three-person crew will work each Men’s Final Four game, while two officials will serve as the standby officials for all three contests.

Patrick Adams
Jeffrey Anderson
Roger Ayers
Courtney Green
Ronald Groover
Keith Kimble
Kipp Kissinger
Terry Oglesby
Marques Pettigrew
Michael Reed

“Collectively, this group of officials has done an outstanding job officiating the tournament,” said Rastatter. “Similar to how teams advance in the tournament with exceptional performances, these officials have been deemed the best amongst their peers and therefore advance to work on the biggest stage at the Final Four. Among the many officials who have performed well in the tournament the last two weeks, this group has stood out the most.”

Anderson will be officiating in his seventh Men’s Final Four, while Adams, Ayers, Groover and Kimble were all selected for the sixth time and Oglesby was chosen to work his fifth Final Four. Kissinger will be working his third Final Four, and this will be the second one for Reed and Szelc. Green and Pettigrew have been selected to work the Final Four for the first time.

Saturday’s first semifinal features Midwest Region champion and No. 1 seed Purdue facing NC State, the No. 11 seed and champions of the South Region. Purdue is making its first Final Four appearance since 1980, while NC State hasn’t been to the Final Four since winning the national championship in 1983. Tipoff is set for 3:09 p.m. Pacific time. The second semifinal game, which is scheduled 40 minutes after the conclusion of Game 1, pits East Region champion UConn against West Region champion Alabama. The Huskies, who were the overall No. 1 seed for the tournament and are the defending national champions, will be making their seventh appearance in the Men’s Final Four and are in search of their sixth national title. The No. 4 seed Crimson Tide are in the Men’s Final Four for the first time.

The officiating assignments for each semifinal game, as well as Monday night’s national championship game, will be announced Saturday morning.

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Idaho beats Pacific 83-53

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) Quinn Denker had 22 points in Idaho's 83-53 victory against Pacific on Tuesday night.

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Denker added three steals for the Vandals (5-4). D'Angelo Minnis scored 20 points while going 6 of 9 from the floor, including 2 for 4 from 3-point range, and 6 for 6 from the foul line. Tyler Linhardt was 3-of-6 shooting, including 2 for 4 from 3-point range, and went 4 for 4 from the free-throw line to finish with 12 points.

The Tigers (4-6) were led in scoring by Cam Denson, who finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and two steals. Judson Martindale added 12 points and two steals for Pacific. Lesown Hallums also had 10 points.

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

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COMMENTS

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PDF 2022-23 NCAA Playing Rules and Officiating Assignments
Women's Basketball Cross Country/Track and Field Women's Volleyball. May 3-5, 2023 June 21-22, 2023 Jan. 4-6, 2023. Rachel Seewald Rachel Seewald Rachel Seewald. Yes No No. Feb. 1 May 1 Oct. 21. March 20 April 17 Nov. 7. Men's Basketball Men's Lacrosse Bowling**. Sport/Committee Fencing Field Hockey* Golf Men's Gymnastics Women's ...
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Say Yes to Officiating. The NCAA recognizes the importance of officiating to competition and the student-athlete experience. The state of officiating is at a critical level due to a declining pool affected by the advancing age of current officials and the lack of interest or incentive among younger populations to enter or remain in the field.
PDF 2023-24 NCAA Playing Rules and Officiating Staff Assignments
2023-24 NCAA Playing Rules and Officiating Staff Assignments (Updated March 12, 2024) ... Women's Basketball ; April 30-May 2, 2024 Rachel Seewald No February 1 March 25 ; Water Polo* May 12-13, 2024 Stanley Broaden Yes February 15 March 4 ;
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Idaho beats Pacific 83-53
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