Not an excuse.
Just like the players prep, so must the officials. They're about to ref the national championship game broadcast nationally, streamed throughout the world. One would expect they'd invest time watching game film from both teams, once the competitors were determined, in order to avoid making fools of themselves.
For whatever reason, the only thing they avoided was enabling the two teams to have it with their best. For all the reasons cited above in this thread, their performance was a disgrace. Going forward, the only way these lugnuts should sniff a women's college basketball game of any import should be if they pay for a ticket.