The NCAA says it was ‘human error’ that led to the embarrassing realization that the 3-point lines at the women’s basketball tournament site at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore., were incorrect measured.
The 3-point lines were pretty much nine inches “runs to the top of the arc,” Lynn Holzman, NCAA vice president for women’s basketball, explained in a detailed letter published on Monday, and assigned the erroneous measurement to an independent contractor who completed the court in Portland.
The NCAA uses courts produced by Connor Sports and the court supplier outsourced the finishing of the court to a third party, making the now infamous mistake.
A hole in the center of the court used to place the center of the net was drilled in the wrong place – about nine inches from where it should have been – and that led to mistakes with the arc of the 3-line points. .
“Connor Sports and the NCAA discovered that the inaccurate line was the result of human error by the finisher hired by Connor Sports. The examination also revealed that the sides of the 3-point line were accurately painted, as were all other markings on the court,” the letter read.
The NCAA corrected the problem overnight, repainting the incorrect lines with a color that matched that of the floor and correctly repainting the 3-point lines black.
The college sports governing body also said it had confirmed at other men’s and women’s basketball tournament sites that the on-court markings were correct.
The incorrect 3-point lines were not noticed until Sunday before Texas played NC State in the Elite Eight at the Moda Center, informing both coaches of the discovery around noon local time.
By then, four games had already been played on the court with inaccurate 3-point lines and, to make the matter even more embarrassing for the NCAA, the error would only have been discovered by the presence of ‘an eagle-eyed fan. reported the Washington Post.
Attorney Michael McGrath just purchased last-minute tickets in the 300s and took photos to post on Reddit, and claimed to have informed a fan near him who appeared to know someone working on the tournament to tell him about the problem.
The NCAA has not confirmed whether a fan was the first to make them aware of the problem.
“We apologize for this error and for the time it went unnoticed,” Holzman wrote. “Simply put, this field did not meet our expectations and the NCAA should have caught the error sooner.
“We will work with all NCAA vendors to establish additional quality control measures to ensure this does not happen in future tournaments.”
One final game will be played in Portland on Monday as UConn faces USC for a trip to the Final Four.
