UConn outplayed the Vols in nearly every aspect of the game. More offensive boards, fewer turnovers, twice as many 3s, much better shooting. If the Huskies had managed to make a reasonable percentage of their free throws, it would have been a blowout.

But on the to real story of the game: the reffing.

I watch a lot of basketball, both men's and women's. (In fact, a lot more men's because there's so much more on TV.) I sometimes think that the reffing is generally terrible in the women's game, but I've never really complained about it because they're doing their best, and I have no way to measure whether it's really worse than the men's reffing.

Plus, complaining about the refs is so cliched.

Tonight, however, was really absurd.

There were a bunch of anticipation calls, like the clean block that Taurasi had in the first minutes and the clean block that Robinson had in the beginning of the second. Dear refs: just because the defender swings her arm doesn't mean it's a foul -- sometimes that arm movement is how you stuff someone.

There were also endless touch fouls. Yes, I know the rules say that the defensive player can't put her hand on the offensive player. But sometimes, when the contact doesn't affect the play, a good ref lets it go.

No one wants to see this game decided with Ashley Robinson and Diana Taurasi on the bench. No one wants to see a second half where most of the players have four fouls, so no one can make any aggressive plays. No one wants to see the pace slowed to a crawl because there are so many goddamn whistles.

Seriously, it needs to change. Tonight, the bad reffing was equally retarded both ways (23 fouls vs. 22; 28 trips to the line vs. 21) so in that sense, it didn't affect the outcome. But it painful to watch.

Every member of that crew should be fired. Sally Bell first. If not fired, they should never be able to work such high-profile games again.