If anything is working right for Fever this year, Stephanie White has made known it isn’t officiating. They came in loaded with firepower, proved they had the depth in the preseason wins, and reaffirmed top-4 team status when the Chicago Sky fell by 35 points. They hardly let the defending champions breathe, either. But when things derailed supposedly due to officiating there, the Fever never got back on track. We get the head coach’s frustration, but Megan Rapinoe is of a different view.
You could trace Fever’s crumble right back to the final play of the game between the Fever and Liberty. Down 88–90, the Fever had one last chance to tie or win. The ball went to Caitlin Clark, who tried to create space but was bumped by Natasha Cloud with just 1.2 seconds remaining. Despite the contact, there was no foul called. Clark couldn’t get her shot off, Fever added a 2nd loss to their campaign, and White wasn’t hiding her frustration.
“I thought she [Caitlin] got fouled. I think it’s pretty egregious, what’s happening to us the last two games. The disrespect [by the referees] for our team, right now, has been pretty unbelievable. So it’s disappointing that it doesn’t go both ways, or it hasn’t gone both ways,” she declared in the post-game conference. But this wasn’t a lone case. Caitlin Clark expressed her disagreements, too, and then some in the game against the Mystics. While fair of the players and the coaches to pop off every now and then, Megan Rapinoe, the soccer icon, and Sue Bird’s fiancé, isn’t here for the recurring complaints.
“You don’t want to become the girl, the team, the coach, the player who cries wolf all the time. It’s just like… constant,” she began on A Touch More: The Podcast. “And, like, to what end? And I think especially around this Fever team, and especially around Caitlin, this has like been a thing. It was a thing last year. Sometimes you just have to play through it and like earn a little bit more respect.”
May 16, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) objects to a call by a referee, Thursday, May 16, 2024, during the Indiana Fever home opener game against the New York Liberty at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Mandatory Credit: Grace Hollars-USA TODAY Sports
It’s not just the questionable calls that are hurting the Fever right now. They’ve dropped 3 of their last 4 games and now face the challenge of playing at least three more without their star, Caitlin Clark. In the loss to the Mystics, the offense looked out of sync, shooting just 39.7% from the field. Defensively, things weren’t any better–they allowed 48 points in the paint. There’s a lot on Coach Stephanie White’s plate if she hopes to guide this team to the playoffs. At this point, blaming the refs might be the least of her concerns.
Following the loss to the Mystics, Coach Stephanie White opened up about what’s currently going wrong for the Fever. Here’s what she had to say.
Stephanie White explains the problems the Fever have
Losing a player like Clark who was averaging almost 19 points and a league high 9.5 assists per game was always going to be difficult for the Fever. Sydney Colson was promoted to the side, but that move didn’t work out in the end. Following the game, Coach White addressed the issues.
“Not relying so heavily on dribble hand-offs and on-ball screens. I know we talked about this pregame, feeling comfortable getting into our off-ball action. That’s still a growth process for us and a growth edge for us. You can see when physicality happens or defensive pressure picks up, it’s like we revert to some old habits.”
It’ll be interesting to see if the Fever can address these issues in the upcoming games. They failed against the Connecticut Sun once again, a team that had come in with a 0-5 record, last on the table. That’s the glaring concern for Stephanie White right there. If they don’t pick up against the Mystics, the Fever will have some serious backtracking to do.
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