After Packer Cries Foul, Doyle Shoots Him Down at the Line

Billy Packer is a humbled man.

Packer, the CBS commentator who aroused the ire of women’s basketball fans with a comment about the legitimacy of NCAA free-throw records set by Richmond’s Ginny Doyle, came to town Tuesday to take on the champ.

He lost. Big.

Packer, an 81.9% free-throw shooter during his college days at Wake Forest, made 12 of 20 free throws in his showdown with Doyle.

Doyle made all 20 shots, hitting the rim only twice.

On Jan. 18, Doyle sank her 66th consecutive free throw. That gave her the NCAA mark for most consecutive foul shots made--by a man or a woman. The next afternoon CBS commentator Andrea Joyce made note of Doyle’s achievement. Packer responded by saying that women use a smaller basketball than men do. That is true--the diameter of a women’s ball is an inch smaller than that of a men’s ball.

After it was over (both using the men’s ball), Packer said his statement about the size of the ball had not been intended to offend anyone. “The whole context of the comment and any responses, that was a tongue-in-cheek situation,” he said.

Doyle agreed. “I thought he was probably just saying it in jest,” she said. “He strikes me as a really nice person, and it meant a lot that he would come here to do this.”