Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer called a measurement error that led to the top of the 3-point line being marked 9 inches shorter at one end of the court for the first five games of the women’s NCAA Tournament’s Portland regional “inexcusable and unfair to every team that played on it.”
“When you arrive at a gym, especially in the NCAA Tournament, at the very least you expect the baskets to be 10 feet and the floor markings to be correct,” VanDerveer said in a statement Monday. “For an error of that magnitude to overshadow what has been an incredible two weekends of basketball featuring sensational teams and incredible individual performances is unacceptable and extremely upsetting.”
The NCAA said Monday it corrected the issue ahead of the Elite Eight game between No. 1 USC and No. 3 Connecticut. That game is set for 9:15 p.m. ET on Monday.
The NCAA got word before No. 1 Texas and No. 3 NC State were set to tip off Sunday 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, and 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…
