The 3-point line for the women's NCAA Tournament at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, had a discrepancy in distance at each end of the court that went unnoticed through four games over two days. Someone figured it out before Texas and North Carolina State played their Elite Eight matchup on Sunday, but the coaches decides to play anyway rather than delay the game. While the NCAA did not provide details, one 3-point line near the top of the key appeared to be about 6 inches closer to the basket than at the opposite end of the floor, per the AP. The NCAA 3-point line is at 22 feet, 1 3/4 inches for both women and men.
"At the end of the day we had already played a game on it and we both won, so we just decided to play," said Texas coach Vic Schaefer, whose team lost to NC State 76-66. All lines were to be measured after practices concluded on Sunday evening and the correct markings would be on the floor ahead of Monday's game between Southern California and UConn. The court issue was another distraction for the NCAA women's tournament:
- There was a referee pulled out of a game at halftime in the first round.
- Utah faced racist harassment before its first-round game.
- Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo was forced to remove a nose ring and missed time in a Sweet 16 loss to Oregon State.
- LSU coach Kim Mulkey threatened to sue the Washington Post over a then-unpublished profile of her and later called out a Los Angeles Times columnist for what she said was sexist criticism of her team. The Times edited the column in response, per USA Today.
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