UCLA Women's Basketball: Complaints From Opponent Seal Bruins’ Fate At Pac-12 Tourney

The lopsided officiating was obvious.

UCLA head coach Cori Close says that the tougher team won on Friday night after her Bruins lost in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals to USC in double overtime Friday night.

However, after being there and seeing it firsthand, I have to disagree.

It wasn't a matter of toughness. It was almost blatant that freshman phenom JuJu Watkins was receiving beneficiary calls, which led to a very lopsided difference at the free throw line. The disparity eventually proved to be the difference in the game.

The Bruins went 15-for-17 from the free-throw line, while the Trojans were 30-for-37.

How is that even possible?

Well, it takes one of the game's best players to complain about every foul call on her, compounded by more complaining when she thought she was fouled.

JuJu Watkins misses 3 times in one possession (one was blocked) before getting away with what would've been her 5th foul

— Gavin Carlson (@GavinCarlson_) March 9, 2024

After Watkins escaped what should've been her fifth and final foul late, the Trojans eluded more fouls and had the ball for what looked like the final possession until Watkins was stripped of the ball and UCLA called timeout with less than two seconds on the clock.

Betts was fouled, no call. Watkins appeared to be fouled on the other end, no call. Then Londynn Jones tries to draw a foul on a fastbreak drive instead of holding for the final shot. NOBODY SCORES AFTER ALL OF THAT and USC has the ball with 19 seconds left after calling timeout

— Gavin Carlson (@GavinCarlson_) March 9, 2024

The Trojans attempted free throws in all six quarters, while UCLA went three periods without any attempts.

Close addressed the officiating after the game.

Very interesting commentary here from UCLA coach Cori Close, when asked postgame about the free-throw disparity between USC-UCLA (37 to 17) tonight in USC's 80-70 win. Transcribed her full answer. Called for more transparency in refereeing in the women's game. pic.twitter.com/EytaQO5zZW

— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) March 9, 2024

The officiating in college basketball seems to favor the game's best players. Take a look at Watkins, who has scored 801 points this season — 203 of those points stemmed from shots made at the free-throw line.

Just more than 25 percent of her points come from the charity stripe. She has attempted 240 free throws this season and, after watching her play in person, it appears that she depends on those as part of her game.

She can flop and draw fouls like a professional, and complain just enough that she escapes fouls that her opponents can't.

It frustrates the other team and in this case, it was UCLA.

That's where Close is wrong about toughness. Charisma Osborne was thrown to the ground and then trampled over with her face driven into the floor without a call just before halftime. She later returned to the game in time to start the second half.

It's discouraging to watch a team that deserved to win get cheated out of it so that the biggest name in the Pac-12 and the new face of women's basketball can be on national television with a matchup against No. 1 seed Stanford on Sunday afternoon. The game will be broadcast on ESPN instead of the Pac-12 Network, as the rest of the tournament had been.

UCLA was the better team and maybe, when Watkins plays on national television, the rest of the country will see what we saw last night.

Going forward, Watkins and the Trojans will be on national television instead of hiding on the Pac-12 Network, which has a more limited audience. Hopefully, the dirty side of her game will end sooner rather than later.