NCAA Basketball has officially reached March Madness. As the NCAA tournament rages on, more eyes are on each college basketball game as the championship stage draws near.
Yet, even the First Round of play in the women’s bracket caused a significant amount of controversy. No, we’re not talking about LSU or Kim Mulkey’s press conference.
Instead, it was a matchup between NC State and Chattanooga that drew the oddest story of the first round of NCAA tournament play. The outcome wasn’t the major talking point, where No. 3 seed NC State toppled the 14-seed Chattanooga 64-45.
The real takeaway was the NCAA’s decision to remove a referee from the game at halftime due to what they described as a “background conflict.” Luckily, Angelica Suffren was on hand to replace Tommi Paris as the game official, but the situation was not ideal for Suffren, who worked the previous game.
Yet, the NCAA felt like they didn’t have a choice but to remove Paris after discovering she received a master’s degree from Chattanooga, who had 17 points compared to NC State’s 26 at halftime. After the ref switch, NC State scored 38 compared to Chattanooga’s 28.
“There was a switch of game officials at halftime of the Chattanooga-NC State first-round game because it was learned after the game had started that Umpire 2 Tommi Paris had a background conflict that, if known, would prevent her from working that assigned game.”
NCAA’ s official statement on decision to remove ref at halftime
The NCAA asks all officials to disclose their school affiliations before tournament play begins, but Paris did not let anyone know about her ties to Chattanooga.
Even Chattanooga head coach Shawn Poppie was caught off-guard after learning about the situation at halftime.
“They literally just … got me in the locker room and said they were making a change. I don’t know what happened. I didn’t see anything specific. Maybe the second time in my career that’s happened. But the other one there was an injury, so you knew. But this one, I’m not really sure.”
Chattanooga head coach Shawn Poppie
It was a bizarre situation, but it sounds like one that was entirely preventable. Paris may not have disclosed her ties to Chattanooga, but shouldn’t the NCAA do some investigating of their own before the game tips off?
Related: LSU coach Kim Mulkey’s press conference tirade goes viral, leaving everyone wanting more