3-point line short at regional
NCAA: 9-inch apex error; coaches opted to play on
The NCAA said Monday one of the 3-point lines on the court used for the women’s basketball regionals in Portland, Oregon, was about 9 inches short of regulation at its apex, a mistake by the contractor that makes the courts used throughout March Madness.
The line on the court at Moda Center was corrected, the NCAA said, ahead of Monday night’s UCONN-USC game.
The NCAA uses Connor Sports to supply and install the courts. The NCAA said the marking used to draw the line at the top of the arc in the center of the court was marked too short.
“For all NCAA courts, a small hole is punched in the floor at each end of the court that indicates ‘center-of-basket’ during the finishing process. A calibrated vinyl-tape device is then placed in the hole, which lays the 2-inch game line to be painted,” Lynn Holzman, NCAA vice president for women’s basketball, said in an email to members.
After reviewing the Portland court, it was found that the center hole was punched about 9 inches short of where it needed to be at the apex of the 3-point arc.
“Connor Sports and the NCAA found the inaccurate line was the result of human error by the finisher contracted by Connor Sports,” Holzman said. “The review also found the sides of the 3-point line were accurately painted, as were all other court markings.”
The discrepancy in distance was discovered
Sunday before Texas and North Carolina State played their Elite Eight game.
Four games already had been been played over two days with the mismatched 3-point lines.
Coaches for Texas and
N.C. State agreed to play as scheduled with one line shorter than the other rather than delay the start. N.C. State beat Texas 76-66 to advance to the Final Four.
The NCAA 3-point line is 22 feet, 1 3/4 inches at the top of the arc for women and men.
“We apologize for this error and the length of time for which it went unnoticed,” Holzman said. “Simply put, this court did not meet our expectations, and the NCAA should have caught the error sooner.
“We will work with all of the NCAA’S suppliers and vendors to establish additional quality control measures to ensure this does not happen in future tournaments.”
Teams switch baskets that they shoot at at halftime, so for each game, each team played one half shooting from the short 3-point arc.
According to the NCAA’S statistics, teams shooting from the 3-point line in Portland that was 9 inches short at the top over five games were 23 for 89 (25.8 percent). Teams shooting on the accurate line were 29 for 87 (33.3 percent).
The Wolfpack were 11 for 19 shooting 3s from the correctly measured line in two games and 5 for 16 with the incorrect line.
“You know, it is an unusual situation,” N.C. State coach Wes Moore said. “But, like I said, I don’t know that it was an advantage or disadvantage, either way. We both played a half on each end.”