Coaches still baffled over GHSA rim mistake

In the movie “Hoosiers,’’ Hickory High basketball coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) walks into the spacious arena where his team is to play the state tournament.

To calm his awe-struck small-town players, he pulls out a tape measure and asks for help. The players measure the distance from the foul line to under the rim. ‘’15 feet,’’ one of them says. They then measure the height of the rim. ‘’10 feet.’’

‘’I think you’ll find it’s the exact same measurements as our gym back in Hickory,’’ Dale said.

Coach Norman Dale has his Hickory players measure the goal height in the 1986 movie "Hoosiers.''

Now at ease, his players begin to smile.

There was no such assurance last week in Macon, where the GHSA staged 14 state basketball finals with the wrong measurements. The rims were 10 feet high, but they were 16 feet – an extra foot – from the foul line, and one foot closer to the baseline. Three-point shots, normally 19 feet, 9 inches, were closer to 21 feet.

The GHSA acknowledged the misalignment on Saturday, after the games were played. Coaches had not brought it to the GHSA’s attention until Saturday. The results stood.

''I am not disputing the outcome of our game,'' said Tucker coach Robin Potter, whose team lost to McEachern in the Class AAAAAA girls final, ''but this is an embarrassment for Georgia high school basketball, and someone needs to be held accountable.  This debacle cannot just be swept under the rug.''

She wasn't the only coach upset about it.

"I was physically sick," Veterans girls coach Nicki Miranda told the Macon Telegraph in a text message "My girls told me the free-throw line was too far away in warmups. They kept telling me they were short.’’

But the games went on. Veterans missed 17 of 30 free-throws and 14 of 15 3-point shots in a 56-38 loss to Americus-Sumter in the Class AAAA girls final.

Wesleyan coach Jan Azar also didn’t realize for sure that the goals were non-regulation until reading a newspaper article on Sunday. She said she had not heard from the GHSA. Wesleyan lost to Holy Innocents’ 66-64 in overtime in the Class AA girls final.

‘’I don’t know what the GHSA should do as it is not my job to figure that out,’’ she said. “All I know is that my players have shot all season on a regulation goal by NFHS standards, and on Friday we did not. I thought we were having a bad shooting night as everything was coming up short.’’

Wesleyan averaged 10 3-point goals over the first four playoff games but was 3-of-17 against Holy Innocents’.

‘’Both teams played on the same court, so to the normal observer all seems OK, [but] an outside shooting team can definitely be affected by incorrect placement of the basket more than a team that scores inside,’’ Azar said.

Like Azar, Tucker's Potter wasn't aware of the misalignment until after her team's game. ''I have subsequently found out that some coaches knew about the issue and others like myelf did not,'' she said. "I do feel that knowledge of the problem could have given one team an advantage.''

The 14 girls finalists made 21 percent of 3-point attempts, 33 percent from the floor overall, and 56.8 percent from the free-throw line. The boys shot 19.8 percent from the 3-point arc, 38.8 percent overall, and 62.4 percent from the free-throw line.

Several teams shot especially poorly on their 3-point attempts. In one of the first games, Wilkinson County and Hancock Central were a combined 0-for-15 in the Class A public-school final won by Wilkinson 55-42. Jenkins’ boys were 3-for-22 on 3-pointers. Manchester’s boys were 2-for-19. Jonesboro’s boys were 3-for-17. Jackson-Atlanta’s girls were 2-for-19. Greenforest’s boys, even in winning, were 1-for-12.

GHSA executive director Gary Phillips didn’t believe the quality of play suffered.

"Only one coach even mentioned a possible problem, and my basketball staff watched the games closely and did not notice any appreciable effect on the shooting or the play of any of the teams,’’ he said. “Some of the teams even shot extremely well from both the floor and the free throw line. But, overall, it looked like typical championship play.’’

Pebblebrook’s boys, who lost to Westlake 62-52 in overtime in the AAAAAA final, was 3-for-14 from after shooting better than 40 percent in other games.

‘’We had wide-open shots that hit the front of the rim,’’ Pebblebrook coach George Washington said. “We had free throws hit the front of the rim. Not just us. Everybody that played. You have (Miller Grove guard) Alterique Gilbert (0-for-4 on 3’s) and (St. Francis guard) Kobi Simmons (12 of 18 on free throws) coming up short, and they’re McDonald’s All-Americans.’’

The boys teams that attempted the most 3-pointers lost in six or seven boys finals.

‘’The jump-shooting teams all struggled or lost,’’ Washington said. “All the big teams won. If there was a big team, the big team won. If you’re a 3-point shooting team like mine, it really affects you when they were college 3’s and now they’re shooting NBA 3’s.’’

Some coaches on some losing teams were hesitant to complain.

‘’While it’s unfortunate that the goals were non-regulation, we don’t want to diminish the accomplishment of Southwest DeKalb,’’ said Winder-Barrow coach Brandon Thomas, whose team lost in the AAAAA girls final. “Had we prevailed by one point, we wouldn’t want anything to take from that. As one of my assistants said this weekend, winners train, they don’t complain.’’

But, criticism wasn’t leveled by losing coaches only.

McEachern girls coach Phyllis Arthur, whose team defeated Tucker 71-51, said she was surprised the GHSA didn’t act as soon as the problem was discovered.

‘’They should have made the adjustments as soon as they found out it was not correct,’’ Arthur said. ‘’I have never heard anything like that. I understand that if they had made the necessary adjustments the previous coaches would still have a legitimate complaint. It really was not a big deal for us except on the free-throw line. We made only half. But we are terrible sometimes at the line. I think it was a big deal for people who live by the 3.’’

In the GHSA's defense, coaches did not make an issue of the goals until almost all of the 14 finals had been played. Phillips said the GHSA was made aware Saturday afternoon but elected not make the adjustment after learning it would take more than an hour to re-position the goals.

Phillips said that the playing conditions were the same for both teams for all 14 championships and that it was not plausible to reconsider the outcomes or delay a game 90 minutes when the coliseum was full of fans.

"While this certainly was not an ideal situation or one that we wanted to have happen, we think the conditions were fair for all the teams,’’ he said. “And, more importantly, it was the same for all the teams. We have plans to make sure this never happens again, but we have no plans to change anything that happened this week in Macon."