In addition, women are not as physically strong as men, so it takes less contact to affect their shots than it does with men. (It may seem that this would apply to defenders as well, but think about it: When a defender makes contact with a player, she very, very seldom is using all of her strength – in fact, she’s trying to minimize the force of her contact. In other words, an offensive player uses almost all of her available strength to power through contact at the rim, while the defensive player is using only a fraction of hers.) Unfortunately, officials tend to judge what contact is permissible from the men’s game, so they will allow contact that might not affect a male shooter but will definitely affect a female shooter, and thus fewer shots are made.
By the same token, officials will allow contact in traps that might not affect a male ballhandler but will put a female ballhandler at a significant disadvantage. This allows stronger athletes to dominate more skilled athletes, and that’s a problem as it tends to reward size and strength over skill and intelligence.
Take the SEC as a prime example of this. Over the years, the SEC has become a (very successful) league of tall, strong, fast athletes who don’t necessarily shoot that well. The league features tremendous defense, in great part because those tall and strong athletes are allowed to use their size and strength to the point that they overwhelm players who, say, are excellent three-point shooters or pinpoint passers.
If officials protected shooters more, and protected ballhandlers more, coaches and defenders would adjust, and the game would open up – just as it did in the NBA.
