The start time of an SEC college basketball game on ESPNU was delayed for an extremely unusual reason on Wednesday night.
The Texas A&M Aggies realized that they didn’t have their jerseys shortly before the tip-off of Wednesday’s game against the Florida Gators in Gainesville. That’s a big whoops, and a nightmare moment for an equipment manager.
While the Texas A&M jerseys were being retrieved from the team hotel, the tip-off was delayed for several minutes.
And when Texas A&M finally got their jerseys, they were penalized with a technical foul for the delay.
So, the Gators got to shoot a free throw before the game even officially tipped off. After Florida’s Will Richard made the free throw, it was 1-0 Gators with zero seconds taken off the clock.
https://twitter.com/thecomeback/status/1610792307309318144
So, how could a team not realize that they’ve forgotten their jerseys until the game is about to start?
Jimmy Dykes — former Arkansas Razorbacks women’s basketball head coach — was asked that by his ESPNU broadcast partner, Tom Hart.
Dykes said, “95 percent of teams in college basketball warm up in a shooting shirt and kind of an undershirt underneath it. They don’t go back and put their jersey on until they’ve cleared the floor for the last time for the national anthem. That’s when they discovered, ‘Coach, we don’t have anything to put on.’ I’ve never seen it before. We’ll probably never see it again.”
Despite giving up a free point to Florida before the game tipped off, Texas A&M took a 34-23 lead into halftime (Update: Texas A&M went on to win 66-63).
[Photo Credit: ESPNU]
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.