[CompSci87]

I was at the game and am mystified by an intentional foul called on Shay with 2:40 left.  We had it to a 2 point game.  Ogden was shooting free throws and made both cutting the lead to 2.  The momentum was clearly on our side.  But then the Cal player on the block went down on Ogden's 2nd shot and Ijiwoye fell on top of her.  No foul was called.  But the Cal player looked seriously hurt--she could not put weight on her knee as she was helped off the court.  The refs decided to review the play. They called an intentional foul on Shay.  This turned the game around.
1) It was Ijiwoye's 5th foul and she had been the spark that was leading our comeback.
2) Cal got two free throws, making them both and extending the lead.
3) Cal keeps the ball.

Here is my question:  what is reviewable?  The refs reviewed a play on which no foul had been initially called?  I did not think they could do that.....but one way or the other it snuffed out our hopes.

Next question:  what did Shay actually do?  I did not see the play from the stands.

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OK, I just watched the replay.  Ijiwoye leaned in and ran sideways into Noble, knocking her to the floor.  I think it is the sort of thing smaller players are taught to do--get leverage on the bigger player.  But Noble fell over rather than pushed back.

The announcement was "the previous play is under review for contact."

What is the rule?  Can plays with nothing called be reviewed whenever the refs think it would be a good idea?  Is it only after an injury?

From memory: The rule in NCAA WBB is that an intentional or unsportsmanlike foul (i.e. what used to be called flagrant 1 or 2) can be called from video review even if no foul was called in real time, but a common foul can't be. It's at the officials' discretion when to do a review to check for such a suspected foul. In this game they also did such a review a few minutes earlier when Krimili was chasing Ijuwoye from behind on a breakaway and ran into Ijuwoye's elbow. They called it incidental contact, I believe correctly.

By the way, the NBA used to have a similar rule (common foul call can't originate from a review) but made changes to stop some obvious unfairness it could cause. My pet peeve (finally corrected in the NBA rules) has been when officials review an out of bounds call to see whether the ball last touched player A or B, and it becomes obvious on review that player A had possession, player B swung at the ball, missed, and whacked player A, causing A to lose the ball out of bounds. In this rather common case, the NCAA WBB rule requires the ball to be awarded to player B's team (possibly reversing the original call) if a review occurs, because the common foul that was missed in real time can't be called on review.

I suspect there may also be some temptation to call a foul intentional/flagrant on review because it can't be called common when it hadn't been called in real time. Hopefully only a very small temptation.

[CompSci87]

I was at the game and am mystified by an intentional foul called on Shay with 2:40 left.  We had it to a 2 point game.  Ogden was shooting free throws and made both cutting the lead to 2.  The momentum was clearly on our side.  But then the Cal player on the block went down on Ogden's 2nd shot and Ijiwoye fell on top of her.  No foul was called.  But the Cal player looked seriously hurt--she could not put weight on her knee as she was helped off the court.  The refs decided to review the play. They called an intentional foul on Shay.  This turned the game around.
1) It was Ijiwoye's 5th foul and she had been the spark that was leading our comeback.
2) Cal got two free throws, making them both and extending the lead.
3) Cal keeps the ball.

Here is my question:  what is reviewable?  The refs reviewed a play on which no foul had been initially called?  I did not think they could do that.....but one way or the other it snuffed out our hopes.

Next question:  what did Shay actually do?  I did not see the play from the stands.

---

OK, I just watched the replay.  Ijiwoye leaned in and ran sideways into Noble, knocking her to the floor.  I think it is the sort of thing smaller players are taught to do--get leverage on the bigger player.  But Noble fell over rather than pushed back.

The announcement was "the previous play is under review for contact."

What is the rule?  Can plays with nothing called be reviewed whenever the refs think it would be a good idea?  Is it only after an injury?

From memory: The rule in NCAA WBB is that an intentional or unsportsmanlike foul (i.e. what used to be called flagrant 1 or 2) can be called from video review even if no foul was called in real time, but a common foul can't be. It's at the officials' discretion when to do a review to check for such a suspected foul. In this game they also did such a review a few minutes earlier when Krimili was chasing Ijuwoye from behind on a breakaway and ran into Ijuwoye's elbow. They called it incidental contact, I believe correctly.

By the way, the NBA used to have a similar rule (common foul call can't originate from a review) but made changes to stop some obvious unfairness it could cause. My pet peeve (finally corrected in the NBA rules) has been when officials review an out of bounds call to see whether the ball last touched player A or B, and it becomes obvious on review that player A had possession, player B swung at the ball, missed, and whacked player A, causing A to lose the ball out of bounds. In this rather common case, the NCAA WBB rule requires the ball to be awarded to player B's team (possibly reversing the original call) if a review occurs, because the common foul that was missed in real time can't be called on review.

I suspect there may also be some temptation to call a foul intentional/flagrant on review because it can't be called common when it hadn't been called in real time. Hopefully only a very small temptation.