“A disaster class of officiating”: NCAA analyst doesn’t mince words as college basketball referees face the heat

Poor officiating marred some NCAA games over the weekend and one sports analyst has had enough of the college basketball referees' bad calls. Rob Dauster blasted the officials and the system they work with at the end of games during Sunday's episode of "The Field of 68: After Dark."

Dauster took aim at the referees who worked in the Illinois vs. Michigan State, Michigan vs. Northwestern, Providence vs. Villanova, Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State, UConn vs. Creighton and the George Washington vs. George Mason games, slamming their officiating in those contests.

"I probably watched 15 full games this weekend and six of them had weird things happen during those games," Dauster said. "Whether it was the fouls against Kasparas Jakucionis, whether it was the flagrants and the reviews in the Michigan and Northwestern game."

"Whether it was the end of the Providence-Villanova game, which, if you watched that, was an abject disaster, a disaster class of officiating from that crew."

Dauster wasn't done with his rant, blasting the review system in place during the closing stages of games.

"The reviews at the end of the Ole Miss vs Mississippi State game were out of control. It was 20 minutes of reviews in overtime which is completely unnecessary," Dauster said.

The analyst called for changes to the system to help fix the officiating crisis he believes is hurting the sport.

"It’s the process. Anytime in the last two minutes, if a coach goes like this, the ref is obligated to go and review it even if you know you got the call right," he said.

"We need something because it’s annoying how often we have to have a conversation about bad officiating at the end of the game."

Illinois coach won't blame college basketball referees in controversial loss to Michigan State

One game that drew the ire of Dauster because of bad officiating by referees was Sunday's showdown between the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Michigan State Spartans. Illinois star Kasparas Jakucionis played just nine minutes in the Fighting Illini's 80-78 loss because of foul trouble.

Kasparas Jakucionis (#32) of the Illinois Fighting Illini walks across the court in the first half against the Indiana Hoosiers on January 14, 2025 in Bloomington, Indiana. Photo: Getty

Referee Jeffrey Anderson then issued a technical foul on the Illinois bench in the closing stages of the contest when the Fighting Illini were trying to make a late rally against the Spartans.

Illinois coach Brad Underwood took the high road in his postgame press conference, saying that he wouldn't blame the college basketball referees for his team's narrow defeat. He called Anderson "a great official" and "one of the best in the country" despite his controversial late call.