July 11, 2018

"Lisa Mattingly, a 33-year veteran of basketball officiating, has been named Coordinator of Women's Basketball Officials for the Southeastern Conference, Commissioner Greg Sankey announced on Tuesday.

"Lisa Mattingly's experience on the court and respect among her peers make her the ideal person to lead the conference's support of women's basketball officiating," said Sankey. "Her insights and relationships will be valuable in moving our officiating program forward."

Mattingly will lead an officiating consortium of conferences that include the Sun Belt, ASUN, Ohio Valley, SWAC and Southland in addition to the SEC.

"I want to thank our Commissioners and their staffs for this tremendous opportunity," said Mattingly. "I look forward to working with all our administrators, coaches, student-athletes and officials to build on the great foundation that Sally Bell and her staff engineered. Additionally, I want to thank all the strong leaders who made themselves available to me. There is no price tag high enough for their generosity to me and on my behalf. Our game has been so generous to me, I'm anxious to give something back."

A 1982 graduate of Sue Bennett College, Mattingly has served as a women's basketball official in the SEC since 1995 and has also officiated in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Conference USA, OVC, Missouri Valley, MAC and Horizon League. She has officiated an average of more than 85 games per year while serving as crew chief in 90 percent of those contests.

She has been selected to officiate in numerous conference tournaments, including the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Conference USA, OVC and Missouri Valley. She has worked 10 Big Ten conference tournament championship games, eight SEC tournament title contests and numerous other conference tournament final games.

Mattingly was first selected to officiate in an NCAA Tournament in 1996 and since that time has worked 21 NCAA Regional Tournaments and 18 Final Fours including 10 championship games.

In addition to her on-court achievements, Mattingly served as liaison for basketball officials to the NCAA Rules Committee from 2003-05.

Mattingly has also made her mark in professional basketball, having been selected to officiate in the inaugural season of the WNBA in 1997. She officiated the WNBA League Championship Series from 2000-07, including the league finals from 2002-06. She was also selected to officiate the WNBA All-Star Game in 2000 and 2006.

She first officiated on the collegiate level in the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference from 1986-93, making her Division I debut with the Ohio Valley Conference in 1990."

- SEC WBB website

To be honest and honesty is all that matters, she had become my least favorite ref of them all. I got sick of her taking over a game with her big dramatic animated actions and making it look like it was more about her than the players. I notice the article mentioning how popular she was among her peers, I suspect so. How about the fans?

In my opinion, Mattingly is one of the 3 or 4 best refs in women's basketball. I hate the fact that she won't be reffing BU games in the future -- at least that's how I interpreted the story. Particularly in Big 12 tournament games, a number of Baylor fans that are very knowledgeable told me that they always breathed a sigh of relief when Mattingly and Kantner were assigned to the big games BU played. She may not be perfect, but she's a million times better than the average women's game ref you'll get these days. I saw Baylor fans giving each other high fives when they saw Mattingly and Kantner leaving the Oklahoma City hotel to go ref the Big 12 championship game that BU was playing that day.

The Best

When you consider how inept & pathetic WBB referees are as a whole it's really amazing that any of them would impress anybody. But there are definitely some that are better than others. Dee Canter is one that I can live with. But folks when you have a herd of cull animals and you bring the worst animal you've got out of your premium pedigreed herd and put it in with the culls you'd be surprised how good that animal then looks. Amongst the culls it appears you have a grand champion in the midst. Kim often calls the WBB refs "scrubs". And that's what you've got. Some of them are so poor that they really do make some of the better ones look fairly decent.

geewago said:

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Kim often calls the WBB refs "scrubs".

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I remember CKM's disappointment with the officiating regarding the Louisville game. But, I don't remember hearing her call the WBB refs "scrubs" once, much less, often. Can you back up that statement?

CavalryRoadie said:

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geewago said:

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Kim often calls the WBB refs "scrubs".

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I remember CKM's disappointment with the officiating regarding the Louisville game. But, I don't remember hearing her call the WBB refs "scrubs" once, much less, often. Can you back up that statement?

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Well I don't have a tape recording of it because I don't walk around trying to catch people in stuff all the time. But two different times at a Tip-off club dinner I heard her refer to "scrub" refs when she was asked a question about them. One time she was asked in particular if there was a difference in the quality of refs that you get when your playing teams that are not ranked high. In other words if McNeese was coming to town would you get the same quality of refs as you would if UConn was coming in. She said there was definitely a difference. With UConn or UT etc you would get higher ranked ones but with a preseason cupcake you'd generally get some scrubs.

On another occasion I set with her & Derrick for about an hour at a JC tournament at MCC. She referred to the JC refs as scrubs. And they certainly are.

Then I remember her using the word in the Bahamas when I flew out there for a tournament one time. After the game she came over to interview with Rick & Lori then she talked to a few of us fans who were assembled on the floor. Somebody whined about how the refs sure stunk and she just shrugged her shoulders and said "Well out here guys you're just gonna get scrubs and you have to live with it".

So I figure if I've heard her say it four or five times at least, considering how little I'm actually around her, she's probably said it a time or two more.

I don't have a problem with it.

Someone has to do it and if it takes her off the court as an official, all the better.

I never had a major problem with their calls.

Better to have a very active and experienced person heading up the national guild of stripes than someone who has never called games in the big arenas.

Old Guy said:

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The Best

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Without question.

I thought she was one of the best as well...