In case you missed it, there was a bit of controversy in some of the women's tournament games this past weekend. No, I am not talking about the huge match-up between LSU and Iowa, although there was a lot of controversy there too. Did you hear about the reporter in LA who ended up apologizing to the LSU women because he portrayed them as "evil" and all other manner of negative adjectives?
No, instead I am talking about the handful of games played out in Portland where the three point line on one end of the court was not the same distance out as the other side of the court. I honestly don't know how they let it go as far as they did. When you looked at it on the TV, it was pretty obvious that something wasn't right.
There is zero chance someone in the stands didn't notice it.
Okay being fair, I watched a full game and didn't notice it until I saw them out on the court taking the measurements. Then it became glaringly obvious to me and it was the only thing I saw through the next game.
I was still watching the game when @mrsbozz got up from her nap and she asked was was going on with the three point line as they were talking about it during halftime of another game. I explained to her what was happening and she said "oh man, I hope it wasn't the company from Michigan's fault!".
You see a company called Connor SPORT Court International just north of the small town of Crystal Falls Michigan supplied a lot of the courts for the tournament games this year. Without looking at a map, I never would have been able to tell you where Crystal Falls is. I probably would have guessed it was somewhere on the west side of the state (kind of right), or down around Detroit.
Instead, it's located way up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan over near Michigan and Wisconsin border.
After an investigation by Connor Sports and the NCAA, it was determined that the issue was a result of human error on the part of the finisher contracted by Connor Sports.
Now, if you know basketball, you know that it isn't really a huge deal. Halfway through the game, the teams switch sides, so any advantage or hindrance you may have had with the closer three point line is then shifted to the other team.
Of course some people may point to the morale factor of shots not going in and that putting you at a deficit you can't recover from the rest of the game. Maybe so, but once the issue was identified, the coaches were given the choice of playing on or doing who knows what else and they were more than happy to play on.
I have little doubt if this had been on the Men's side of thing it probably would have been caught a lot sooner. The fact is, they are under a much finer microscope than the women's side of things, but that is slowly changing.
Viewership is at all time highs for the women's tournament. It will be interesting to see if that continues into next year or if it drops off now that Caitlin Clark will be playing in the WNBA.
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