The NCAA has fixed the 3-point line discrepancy that was discovered Sunday on the Portland court used for five women’s tournament games.
Officials found that the 3-point line on one end of the court was nine inches shorter at the apex of its arc than the standard NCAA distance even though the other 3-point line was painted correctly.
The discrepancy was first noticed prior to NC State’s 76-66 Elite Eight victory over Texas, but both the NC State and Texas head coaches consented to play the game on the court. Four Sweet 16 games had already been played on the court.
“We apologize for this error and the length of time for which it went unnoticed. Simply put, this court did not meet our expectations, and the NCAA should have caught the error sooner,” the NCAA said in a statement released Monday.
NC State’s 3-point shooters struggled when shooting from the shorter 3-point line Sunday, as well as during the team’s Sweet 16 game against Stanford, according to data released by the NCAA.
On the shorter side, both NC State and Texas made just 33.33% of their 3-pointers Sunday. When shooting from the standard distance, NC State players made 66.67% of their attempts and Texas players made 0 of their 3 attempts.
How did the NCAA fix the Portland court 3-point line discrepancy?
Portland hosts one more game — UConn vs. USC — before the women’s tournament heads to Cleveland for the Final Four. The NCAA fixed the court prior to Monday’s game by painting over the original 3-point line.
“Overnight in Portland, the incorrect 3-point line was painted over with a color that matches as closely as possible the wood grain of the floor, and the correct 3-point line was painted on in black. This change brings the court into full compliance with NCAA playing rules,” the NCAA said.
The error is still visible as evidenced by a photo shared by UConn athletic director David Benedict on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Were the 3-point lines on any other NCAA Tournament courts painted wrong?
No other discrepancies have been reported on any of the other courts used for the men’s and women’s tournaments, Lynn Holzman, the NCAA’s vice president of women’s basketball, said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.
“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,” she said. “We are not aware of any other issues at any of the prior sites for men’s or women’s tournament games.”
The NCAA said the courts for both the men’s and women’s Final Four in Phoenix and Cleveland, respectively, have been remeasured.
Who installs the March Madness courts?
The Portland court was supplied by Connor Sports, which supplies all of the NCAA Tournament courts, and “the inaccurate line was the result of human error by the finisher contracted by Connor Sports,” according to the NCAA.
The NCAA found that all of the other court markings were accurate.