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Sunday, the Elite 8 game between Texas and NC State in Portland was played under very unusual circumstances when it was discovered that the two 3-point lines on the court were different distances.
After the discovery of the mismatched 3-point lines, Lynn Holzman, the NCAA’s vice president of women’s basketball, issued a statement.
“The NCAA was notified today that the three-point lines on the court at Moda Center in Portland are not the same distance,” the statement read. “The two head coaches were made aware of the discrepancy and elected to play a complete game on the court as is, rather than correcting the court and delaying the game. The court will be corrected before tomorrow’s game in Portland.
“While the NCAA’s vendor has apologized for the error, we will investigate how this happened in the first place. The NCAA is working now to ensure the accuracy of all court markings for future games. We are not aware of any other issues at any of the prior sites for men’s or women’s tournament games.”
Later, on Sunday night, the official court supplier of the NCAA Tournament also released a statement.
“Connor Sports was informed this afternoon that a three-point arch was painted with an incorrect distance,” they wrote. “We apologize for the error that was found and have technicians on site at the Moda Center in Portland who were instructed to make the necessary corrections immediately following today’s game.”
While it was a very strange sight to see the two 3-point lines being at clearly different distances, it was even obvious just on TV, many people just assumed since the teams switch sides at halftime it would be equitable.
That may not have been the case, however.
During the five tournament games played in Portland on the court with the mismatched 3-point lines, teams shot 33.3% (29 for 87) from the side with the correct measurement and just 25.8% (23 for 89) on the incorrectly measured side of the court.
Also, teams in those games averaged 66.8 points per game on the side with the correct 3-point line and just 62.0 points on the incorrect side.
When all was said and done though, the only major problem that one coach could see with the mismatched 3-point lines came from NC State head coach Wes Moore, who said, “If it would have gone to overtime, we might have a complaint. But as it was, it was equal for both teams.”
Can you imagine if any of the games had gone into overtime? Or if it had happened in the men’s Elite 8? Be better, NCAA.