PORTLAND, Ore. — The top of the 3-point line was marked 9 inches shorter at one end of the court for the first five games of the women’s NCAA Tournament’s Portland regional, the NCAA said, adding that it has corrected the issue ahead of Monday’s Elite Eight game between No. 1 USC and No. 3 Connecticut.
The NCAA got word on Sunday, just before No. 1 Texas and No. 3 NC State were set to tip off, that the two lines were uneven. The line by the Texas bench was correct, but the line by the NC State bench was too short. Both teams elected to play the game without the court’s correction.
The NCAA did not confirm how it first discovered the issue, but called it a “human error” by a finisher contracted by Connor Sports, the official vendor of the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament courts since 2006. The NCAA apologized for the issue, writing in a statement that it wishes it caught the error sooner.
The incorrect 3-point line has been painted “with a color that matches as closely as possible the wood grain of the floor,” the NCAA said Monday. The correct 3-point line — 22 feet, 1 3/4 inches from the basket — will be marked in black.
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