National Broadcaster Exposes Shocking Reason Behind Auburn vs. Kentucky Delay as Power Backup Becomes Elusive

Saturday’s blockbuster men’s college basketball showdown between No. 1 Auburn Tigers and No. 17 Kentucky Wildcats took an unexpected turn. Viewers who tuned in to ABC were abruptly disconnected from the action, missing the final moments of the game. In a bizarre technical glitch, the broadcast abruptly went dark, silencing the commentary and plunging the screen into a blue hue before cutting to a commercial.

Matt Jones tweeted: “BREAKING: I am told there was a major technical issue outside of Rupp Arena by the ABC TV truck and it lost all power.” The host of Ky Sports Radio and NFL Preview show on ESPN Radio continued, “Trying to find backup power now but not sure it will happen before the end.” After the update from the national broadcaster, there was another report that stated the effects of the outage on the court action as well.

After the ABC truck lost its power, the referees also explained that they couldn’t do official reviews. As per LEX18 reports, even the monitors were out, which affected the officials during the crucial clash between the Auburn Tigers and the Wildcats. Fans missed most of the final 12 minutes of the game, as the broadcast lost both its picture and audio on the channel. It eventually resumed on ESPN news with only 2:33 minutes remaining, and the play-by-play caller gave more insights as to why the truck lost power.

“We know we have been gone for a while now. … Here’s what happened: a generator here at Rupp Arena caught on fire.” Dan Shulman continued, “So, first and foremost, thankfully, form what we understand, everybody is OK, but obviously that knocked us off the air for a long long time. We are back.” At the time of the broadcast issue, the Auburn Tigers had already amassed a lead with the score being 68-52. The Wildcats’ head coach took the onus on himself for the emphatic loss.

Mark Pope takes accountability as the Auburn Tigers win after 37 years

The Wildcats were behind from the get-go as they were behind 14-2. The Auburn Tigers were able to keep a strong hold of their lead throughout the game, thanks to major Kentucky mistakes. The team would turn over the ball 18 times, which led to the Tigers scoring 21 points.

First, Mark Pope gave credit to Bruce Pearl for running the program and leading them as the number 1 team. “They’ve done an unbelievable job not just assembling but growing and fitting together the pieces on their team, so congratulations to them.” Later, the Wildcats coach shouldered the blame for being unable to guide the team.

“That’s actually—you can give credit to Auburn for that. They got us in a hole, and you can put the blame for that on me…I wasn’t able to get the guys to a place where we could just kind of be present in the execution of the moment.” So, the coach could see his team falter but couldn’t do much to improve them against the number one team. Up next, they host LSU on Tuesday night and would like to better the performance, especially by reducing the record turnovers.