Officials Make Truly Shocking Error That Calls Into Question The Whole Of

Officials Make Truly Shocking Error That Calls Into Question The Whole Of Women’s March Madness

The NCAA made a huge mistake by allowing many games of the women’s collegiate basketball championship tournament to be played on a Portland court with one three-point line that was much shorter than the other, according to an NCAA statement.

The NCAA found the error Sunday, before the North Carolina State Wolfpack and Texas Longhorns faced off in their Elite Eight battle. According to ESPN, the court had previously been used in Friday and Saturday’s regional semi-final games.

“The NCAA was notified today that the three-point lines on the court at Moda Center in Portland are not the same distance,” Lynn Holman, NCAA vice president of Women’s Basketball, said in a statement.

The NCAA contacted the coaches at Texas and North Carolina State, who apparently chose to play the game on the mismatched court rather than wait an hour for it to be fixed.

The NCAA stated that the lines were drawn by a third party vendor. “While the NCAA’s vendor has apologized for the error, we will look into how it occurred in the first place.” “The NCAA is currently working to ensure that all court markings are accurate for future games,” Holman noted.

“The NCAA regrets that the error was not discovered sooner,” Holman stated.

The NCAA has modified its earlier statement on the 3-point line controversy in Portland: pic.twitter.com/AfRz03R5nY

— Grace Raynor (@gmraynor). March 31, 2024.

Oh, do you regret it? Yeah, no surprise.

Talk about the bush league. If the NCAA wants us to care about women’s sports, they should surely start by demonstrating that they care, too. (RELATED: College Basketball Team Goes An Incredibly Long Time Without Scoring A Point)

“Well, I hate to say this, but I have a lot of colleagues that would say, ‘Only in women’s basketball,'” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “I mean, it’s a tremendous sad that it happened. But it is what it is.

Schaefer is absolutely correct. In men’s basketball, an inaccuracy of this magnitude would be unusual. With the rise of sports betting, there’s simply too much money at stake. A mistake like this on the men’s side and freakin’ heads will roll.

One fascinating tidbit: NC State coach Wes Moore informed ESPN that the misdrawn line was much shorter than the normal 22 feet and 1.75 inches from the top of the key to the hoop. According to ESPN Stats and Information, teams shot worse from the closer line. Teams shot 23-79, or 29%, from the shorter line, and 29-87 from the regulation line, for 33%.

In any case, this is a complete rookie mistake. The NCAA as a whole is extremely profitable. While men’s sports generate the majority of income, there has been a significant marketing effort to increase the popularity of women’s games, particularly basketball.

Despite this, the association evidently did not believe it was critical to undertake any monitoring with the company they hired to paint the court’s lines. It’s difficult to get excited about women’s sports when their own league seems to treat them as an afterthought.