Tara VanDerveer slams 3-point line foul in NCAA women's tournament: 'Unjustified and unfair'

Stanford women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer called the measurement error that led to the top of the 3-point line being marked 9 inches shorter at one end of the court in the first five games of the Portland Women's Regional in the NCAA Tournament “inexcusable and unjustified.” Fair for everyone.” The team he played on.”

“When you get into the gym, especially in the NCAA Tournament, you at least expect the baskets to be 10 feet high and the floor markings to be correct,” VanDerveer said in a statement Monday. “For a mistake of this magnitude to overshadow two fantastic weekends of basketball featuring great teams and amazing individual performances is unacceptable and deeply disturbing.”

The NCAA said Monday it corrected the issue before the Elite Eight game between No. 1 USC and No. 3 Connecticut. This match is set for 9:15 PM ET on Monday.

The NCAA received word before No. 1 Texas and No. 3 NC State were set to play on Sunday that the two streaks were uneven. The line on Texas' bench was correct, but the line on NC State's bench was too short, and both teams chose to play the game without correcting the court.

The NCAA has not confirmed how it first discovered the issue, but has called it “human error” by a finisher contracted to Connor Sports — the official vendor of men's and women's NCAA championship courts since 2006. The NCAA has apologized for This problem, and she wrote in a statement that she hoped to discover the error sooner.

The incorrect 3-point line was painted “in a color that matches as closely as possible the wood grain on the floor,” the NCAA said Monday. The correct 3-point line – 22 feet, 1 3/4 inches from the basket – is marked in black.

The NCAA said the corrected 3-point line was outlined in black on the court at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon (Photo: Ashley Young/The Athletic)

According to the NCAA, the foul only affected the top of the 3-point line.

Coaches from NC State and Texas said the error did not affect their teams' performance. N.C. State shot 50 percent from beyond the arc on Sunday, and although the Longhorns shot just 17 percent from deep, coach Vic Schaefer didn't blame his team's struggles on a measurement error. His players only discovered after the game that there was a discrepancy.

The NCAA on Monday sent out a statistical analysis of how the incorrect line affects teams.

Stanford was 5 of 25 shooting from beyond the arc during the Cardinal's 77-67 loss to N.C. State on Friday at Moda Center, while N.C. State was 7 of 17 shooting from 3 in the game. On a side with an inaccurate 3-pointer, the Cardinal made 2 of 13 3-pointers (15.4 percent). They made 3 of 12 shots (25 percent) from beyond the arc on the right sideline.

The NCAA called the case an “isolated incident” and said it had reviewed all other courts previously used in the men's and women's tournaments and found them to be accurate.

“We apologize for this error and for the length of time it went unnoticed,” the NCAA said. “This court simply did not meet our expectations, and the NCAA should have caught the error sooner.”

“We will work with all NCAA suppliers and vendors to establish additional quality control procedures to ensure this does not happen at future tournaments.”

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(Photo: Candice Ward/USA Today)