Sunday’s conference championship game in the Atlantic 10 conference between the VCU Rams and the Duquesne Dukes featured an extremely bizarre moment where confetti designed for the end of the game was prematurely dropped, which caused a stoppage in play.
The incident took place with 18 minutes left in the second half, halting a VCU possession. CBS broadcaster Kevin Harlan had a terrific call of the unusual moment.
“Oh my gosh, they have confetti falling right now,” said Harlan. “Confetti is falling on the floor and we are going to have to stop play! We can’t see our notes! The players can’t work on this court! Confetti is everywhere! Somebody hit the wrong button.”
Harlan was absolutely correct in his assessment of course. Someone in the Barclays Center very clearly hit the wrong button. And many around the college basketball world were certainly talking about this situation.
You’ll only find moments like this in college basketball. And it certainly impacted the broadcast of the rest of the game.
With 12 minutes remaining in the game, CBS ran a “since confetti fell” graphic to show that the premature confetti falling had seemingly affected Duquesne negatively, as VCU was on a 9-0 run to cut into their deficit.
VCU would continue to cut into the lead and make this an extremely competitive ending to the game. However, Duquesne would hold onto their lead, winning the game 57-51 to automatically qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
Duquesne would then get their confetti shower, this time at the right time appropriately at the end of the game, to celebrate their victory.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.