What a solution to kick off March.
Auburn and Kentucky followers had been possible dropping their minds on Saturday afternoon, and never simply because the No. 1 Tigers bested the No. 17 Wildcats, 94-78.
Followers who had been watching the extremely anticipated conflict on ABC, sadly, missed a lot of the ultimate 12 minutes of the sport after the printed misplaced each its image and audio on the channel within the second half, first chopping to a blue display after which a business break.
Following about seven minutes of uninterrupted commercials, the community despatched an replace saying, “For those of you watching on ABC, they’re having technical difficulties inside Rupp Arena. We want to let you know, you will see Texas Tech and Kansas until they get things figured out here, the game that’s playing out right now over on ESPN.”
Solely ABC didn’t present followers a unique faculty basketball sport, however fairly the pregame present for the scheduled Bruins-Penguins NHL sport that was set to comply with the Auburn-Kentucky showdown with a 3 p.m. ET begin time.
The Bruins and Penguins sport began with none change to a school sport, not to mention the preliminary sport they tuned in for.
Shortly after the sport began, Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports activities Radio reported the printed bother got here from a “major technical issue” involving the truck the ABC workforce delivered to the Kentucky sport.
“I am told there was a major technical issue outside of Rupp Arena by the ABC TV truck and it lost all power,” he wrote on X. “Trying to find backup power now but not sure it will happen before the end.”
Round 3:30 p.m., ESPN posted its personal replace on the outage.
“Programming update: #NCAAMBB on ABC’s broadcast of @AuburnMBB at @KentuckyMBB is experiencing technical difficulties. NHL is now underway on ABC,” the submit learn.
Inside the sector, referees additionally couldn’t do official evaluations due to the outage, LEX18 reported.
The printed later resumed on ESPN Information with solely 2:23 left within the sport, and play-by-play voice Dan Shulman clarified information about the reason for outage, saying a generator caught fireplace.
“Well we would like to welcome everyone back here,” Shulman mentioned. “We know we have been gone for a while now…Here’s what happened: a generator here at Rupp Arena caught on fire. So, first and foremost, thankfully, form what we understand, everybody is okay, but obviously that knocked us off the air for a long long time. We are back.”
Fortunately for followers that missed out on a lot of the second half, they didn’t miss something decisive that led to the sport’s consequence.
Auburn was main 68-52 when the feed crashed, and it maintained its well-established lead the remainder of the best way, which led to some jokes on social media.
“Auburn is beating Kentucky so badly they literally pulled the plug on the broadcast,” one person wrote.
“Kentucky really said “Y’all haven’t seen us lose to Auburn in this building in 37 years and you ain’t gonna see it today either,” one other wrote on X.
Sports activities reporter Rick Bozich of WDRB in Louisville mentioned followers had been owed a giant apology.
“ESPN/ABC owes Kentucky fans a king-sized apology,” he wrote on X. “Missed first 12-plus minutes of the Oklahoma game Wednesday because A&M-Vandy ran long. Now they’ve lost the end of the Auburn game, so we’re getting an NHL pregame show. Err ball.”
ESPN did concern an official assertion after the sport.
“In a freak accident, a generator at Rupp Arena caught on fire causing us to lose power and be knocked off the air as a result,” the community mentioned, per the Lexington Herald Chief. “Thankfully, no one was harmed on-site. We apologize that fans watching on ABC were impacted for a period in the second half.”
Auburn had not received a sport at Rupp Enviornment since 1988, once they clawed to a 53-52 win over the then-No.1 Kentucky.
Saturday additionally marked the Tigers’ first win over the Wildcats since 2022.
